Trouble installing Windows Updates? Perform a clean boot.

[Ballistic Gelatin]

Recently, I performed a factory restore of Windows 7 Pro on my Lenovo x230 Tablet (long story; I won't bore you with details). For nearly a week afterward, I tried downloading all of the Windows Updates issued since Aug. 2013 through Windows Update. There were about 190+ updates, and while they did download successfully, they would never install after I performed the customary reboot to apply all of the Pending updates. (A few updates for .NET Framework would install, but not the others.) 

 

So I tried ALL of the usual (and unusual) solutions to troubleshoot Windows Update, and NONE of them worked.

 

This morning, the phrase "Clean boot"  suddenly popped into my mind. (Yes, I believe in God.) So I re-downloaded everything again for the umpteenth time (about 1.37 GB). But instead of just blindly rebooting, I temporarily configured my system for Clean Boot, something most of us here are familiar with. I initiated the Clean Boot and, lo and behold, every last one of those 191 (Pending) updates installed without issue.

 

Much has been written about the recent problems with Windows Update taking an eternity to download and install updates. I don't know if my solution was unique to my particular system or Windows 7. But it worked beautifully.

 

One of the best resources I found for troubleshooting Windows Update can be found under Microsoft KB2509997.

 

HTH someone.
 

[Batu69]

Moved from Guides & Tutorials forum.

[WAMVN]

tl;dr

Open Task Manager, Startup tab, disable all, restart to update.

[macnavarra]

Seems like some installed factory Lenovo x230 software somehow is messing up windows profile and windows update can't keep settings.