Windows 10: “We couldn’t complete the updates, undoing changes”

windows 10windows update

On a regular Windows Update routine I'm getting the following message:

We couldn't complete the updates, undoing changes.

The computer restarts for several more times repeating the same process, then, after system is on, checking the updates history reveals this:

Security Update for Windows 10 for x64-based Systems (KB3074683)
Failed to install on [date]

Update
Checking the event viewer, I see this error 4 times:

Installation Failure: Windows failed to install the following update with error 0x80070003: Security Update for Windows 10 for x64-based Systems (KB3074683).

Best Answer

I've got the same issue and following on @Arthur's suggestion, I had a look at my user SIDs in the registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList and some of them belonged to users that no longer existed in the system (I had previously removed them).

I've removed the dummy entries (luckily there were only a couple) and the update worked.

PLEASE save yourself some trouble and backup the registry before trying that.

Related Solutions

Windows – Why are the Windows 7 updates continuously failing

The best way to attack this is to download them directly and run them that way. You will get more verbose errors in many cases.

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=2092

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=20858

Post back any errors.

Windows 10 – Updates are failing

Please follow the below steps to reset the Windows Updates Components:

Press Windows Key + X on the keyboard and then select “Command Prompt (Admin)” from the menu.
Stop the BITS, Cryptographic, MSI Installer and the Windows Update Services. To do this, type the following commands at a command prompt. Press the “ENTER” key after you type each command.

                       net stop wuauserv

                       net stop cryptSvc

                       net stop bits

                       net stop msiserver

Now rename the SoftwareDistribution and Catroot2 folder. You can do this by typing the following commands in the Command Prompt. Press the “ENTER” key after you type each command.
```
                  ren C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old

                  ren C:\Windows\System32\catroot2 Catroot2.old
```
Now, let’s restart the BITS, Cryptographic, MSI Installer and the Windows Update Services. Type the following commands in the Command Prompt for this. Press the ENTER key after you type each command.
```
                net start wuauserv

                net start cryptSvc

                net start bits

                net start msiserver
```
Type Exit in the Command Prompt to close it.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Windows – Why are the Windows 7 updates continuously failing

Windows 10 – Updates are failing

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