OT: Trouble with Windows 8 update

[winchman]

It has always worked perfectly in the past, but now it's broken. It first said there were 10 important updates, so I started the download. It took almost twenty minutes to download the updates, which is much longer than it has ever taken in the past. (I checked the internet speed later, and it's fine.) Then it started installing the updates.

It stalled on the fourth update, so I opened the help window and had it check for problems. It said it found and fixed a problem, the update window said to restart the computer, and that went OK.

Then I checked for updates again, and there were seven important updates. It never finished the download part, so I opened the troubleshooter thing again, but it just went on and on "resolving problems", so I cancelled that. The update window was now showing "you're set to automatically get updates".

I tried to restart the download, but the cursor turned into sideways arrows (like you'd use for adjusting the size of the window), and wouldn't do anything. Couldn't close the update window, and couldn't do anything else, so I restarted the computer.

This time I just selected one update (for Explorer), and that worked OK, and I restarted the computer again.

Now there are six important updates left, but it will never finish the download, and the troubleshooter thing just locks up the computer.

I tried going to the Microsoft update site directly (that worked better on the XP computer), but it just tells you to use the update app on the computer.

Any suggestions?

[lakeside53]

Reboot (obviously) and leave it on auto update. I find it generally figures itself out in a couple of days.

You of course go back to restore point, but do a backup first.

[KiddZimaHater]

I absolutely HATE updates.
It seems like every time my computer does updates, something screwy starts happening. No sound, videos won't play, pop ups re-appear.
I disabled updates on my laptop, and now it runs like a champ.
My wife's Windows 8 computer started acting weird just recently.
Same symptoms. No sound, videos freezing, Java problems, couldn't play her online games.
She had to do a system restore, and she disabled updates as well.

[lakeside53]

Interestingly I have had zero issues with auto updates since NT3.51 days. Much of it will depend on what hardware you are using and who wrote the existing drivers.

If you are going to run updates manually, or have the system ask if you'd like to install them, you will occasionally need to figure out the dependencies (some will just fail to install unless a prior is already in place which is why it often takes 2-3 cycles to get all the updates in place is your way behind). Some companies I work with only install the major service pack roll ups, then required security patches. But... they do have IT departments to figure all this out.

[Paul Alciatore]

...<snip>...

Any suggestions?

UPGRADE to Windows 7!

[Glug]

I suggest you test updates in a virtual machine before installing them.

You may also wish to do your work in a virtual machine. That would allow you to take snapshots and copy virtual machines. Lots of good stuff.

I like virtualbox, and it is free.

[PStechPaul]

I have had goofy problems with Win8, but it seems to be something more like memory manager issues and crashed plug-ins (like Adobe Flash, mostly). A (soft) restart doesn't always work, so I found that shutting down all running programs and then cycling the power button for 5 seconds for a hard reboot usually fixes it. I agree that Win7 is much better, and Win 8.1 is horrible, as it caused some programs that mostly ran on 8.0 to not work at all.

I am also now using Mozilla Firefox and it seems more stable than IE10-11 or whatever the lamest and greatest might be.

[frankie]

I have a HP that came with WIN8 which didn't work very well so I updated to WIN8.1 a slight improvement. So then I downloaded Google Chrome there is a bit of learning to be done and it does work quite well.

frankie