[SOLVED] "Restart your computer to install important updates" after removing Win10 nagware

[EarlGrey]

"Restart your computer to install important updates" after removing Win10 nagware

Hi, I found through Google several people with vaguely similar issues sucessfully receiving help on this forum, so I thought this'd be a good place to ask about my issue.

I'm running Windows 7 SP1 64-bit. A few days ago I told the Windows 10 nagware thing that it could download Windows 10, but to my surprise and annoyance it also looked like it was going to install Windows 10. On the Windows Update window, it said "Your upgrade to Windows 10 is ready" with a restart button. But I really didn't (and don't) want to upgrade to Windows 10 for the next 6-12 months, so I freaked out a little bit and uninstalled the Win10-related updates and deleted the C:\$~Windows... folder containing Windows 10. When I restarted from this, the computer got stuck in "preparing to configure updates" and I had to hard reset the computer even though it said not to. After that, the computer worked fine (no update-related issues or text on reboot) except that Windows Update is now borked. Originally it still said "Your upgrade to Windows 10 is ready" even though I removed GWX.exe and the other stuff. Then I tried a whole bunch of guides, fixits, etc. to try to fix this, which did nothing but change the message on the Windows Update window from that Win10-specific message to "restart your computer to install important updates". In either case, I am unable to install any updates because clicking "check for updates" gives me "Windows Update cannot currently check for updates, because you must first restart the computer so that a previous installation can be completed," and clicking the "restart now" button only does a normal restart; I don't get any "configuring Windows" text or anything.

Finally, I used my Win7 install disk to do a non-destructive "upgrade" over the OS to try to fix it. This seemed to fix it for a while. But after I allowed it to install all ~170 available updates (excluding the Win10 KB3021917 and KB2952664), it returned to the exact same "restart your computer to install important updates" state where I can't check for updates and restarting does nothing at all.

Do you know how I might fix this? I kind of feel like there must be a file somewhere that wasn't properly removed even in the OS mostly-reinstall telling Windows Update that it needs to do something on reboot, but in messily removing Windows 10 I removed the actual thing-it-needs-to-do, so it's stuck.

Attached are CheckSUR.log, CBS.log, and SFCFix.txt. Here is my entire CBS folder (108 MB).

Thanks a lot!

 

[BrianDrab]

Re: "Restart your computer to install important updates" after removing Win10 nagware

Hello and welcome

Due to the precise nature of your corruption, you will receive help from a user named LiquidTension. He's one of our senior trainees here who's in his final phrase of his studies and needs to gain some real world experience in specific areas of Windows Update. This means that he'll be assisting you, but that I will first need to double check and approve his fixes before he posts them to you. If anything this is a good thing for you because it means that you've got at least two of us watching over your thread, but it will unfortunately add a slight delay between each reply. I hope that you understand and can accept the need for us to train up new members in this way in order to carry on doing what we do here, however, if for any reason you object to this setup, I will happily take on your thread myself.

Thank you very much for your understanding. We'll be with you very shortly.

 

[LiquidTension]

Re: "Restart your computer to install important updates" after removing Win10 nagware

Hello EarlGrey,

Please do the following:

Revert Pending Actions

Warning: This fix is intended for use on this particular machine. Do not use this fix on any other machine; doing so may cause damage to your Operating System. If you are not the original poster and require assistance, please start your own topic.

• Follow the instructions here (Windows 7) on how to boot into the Recovery Environment.
• Once at the Command Prompt, type the following command and press Enter on your keyboard.
  
  notepad
  
  
• Click File, followed by Open. On the left, click Computer. Look for the drive letter associated with Local Disk. Once you've identified the drive letter, close the Window followed by Notepad.
• At the Command Prompt, type the following command and press Enter on your keyboard.
• Note: Replace C (in red below) with the drive letter you identified earlier.
  
  DISM /image:C:\ /cleanup-image /revertpendingactions
  
  
• If successful, you should see the following message. Please let me know if you don't.
  

  Reverting pending actions from the image...
  The operation completed. Any revert of pending actions will be attempted after reboot. 
  The operation completed successfully.

• Reboot your computer normally into Windows.

 

[EarlGrey]

Re: "Restart your computer to install important updates" after removing Win10 nagware

Done, but Windows Update still doesn't work.

To enter the recovery environment, I had to disconnect my second disk because otherwise I got "this version of System Recovery Options is not compatible...".

After running that command, I got:

The scratch directory size might be insufficient to perform this operation. This can cause unexpected behavior.
Use the /ScratchDir option to point to a folder with sufficient scratch space. The recommended size is 1024 MB.

Reverting pending actions from the image...
The operation completed. Any revert of pending actions will be attempted after reboot. 
The operation completed successfully.

P.S. I noticed that there's still some Windows 10 nagware that tells me every once in a while something like "it's about time to upgrade to Windows 10", and then gives me the option to reschedule or upgrade now. Clicking upgrade now restarts the computer, but nothing happens. This nagware is wuaudt.exe.

 

[LiquidTension]

Re: "Restart your computer to install important updates" after removing Win10 nagware

Hello EarlGrey,

Please do exactly the same as before - only this time executing the following commands. Press Enter after each line.
Ensure you check the drive letter for Local Disk again, and replace the letters in red if necessary.

mkdir C:\Scratch
DISM /Image:C:\ /Scartch-Dir:C\Scratch /Cleanup-Image /RevertPendingActions

 

[EarlGrey]

Re: "Restart your computer to install important updates" after removing Win10 nagware

There seems to be some minor errors in that command, but I ran DISM /Image:C:\ /ScratchDir:C:\Scratch /Cleanup-Image /RevertPendingActions. That gets rid of the insufficient scratch space warning, but it doesn't fix the Windows Update issue.

 

[EarlGrey]

Re: "Restart your computer to install important updates" after removing Win10 nagware

After a lot of experimentation, I've found a workaround: If you uninstall the update "Windows Update Client for Windows 7 ..." (various KB numbers depending on the version -- KB3075851 and KB3065987 are two possibilities), this fixes it. However, installing it again will break it.

I suspect that this will cause problems in the future when certain updates require an updated version of the Windows Update Client. For example, I don't think that upgrading to Windows 10 will be possible. So if anyone here thinks they might have some chance of solving this properly so that newer versions of Windows Update Client work, I'm willing to reinstall this update and be a guinea pig for possible solutions.

Thanks!

 

[LiquidTension]

Re: "Restart your computer to install important updates" after removing Win10 nagware

Could you clarify what you mean by, "this fixes it" please? Are you saying the uninstallation of the one update resolves the reboot nag screen? And reinstallation results in this returning?

 

[EarlGrey]

Re: "Restart your computer to install important updates" after removing Win10 nagware

Right, uninstalling that one update causes the reboot nag screen to go away it and reinstalling it causes it to return.

I'll go ahead and mark this solved and I guess return to the issue if I can't figure out how to upgrade to Windows 10 without these updates in 6-12 months, or if not having these updates causes other problems. Though if anyone wants to help me find a better/cleaner solution, that'd also be cool. I feel like there must be a file or registry entry somewhere that just needs to be deleted in order to fix this.

Thanks!

 

[LiquidTension]

Re: "Restart your computer to install important updates" after removing Win10 nagware

If you wish to continue troubleshooting, install the recently uninstalled update and do the following:

Gather Pending Information

• Navigate to C:\Windows\Winsxs using Windows Explorer.
• Copy any files similar in name to pending.xml (e.g. pending.xml, pending.xml.bad, pending.xml_dfsadf78 etc.) to a folder on your Desktop.
• Right-click the folder, click Send to followed by Compress (zipped) folder. Attach in your next reply.
• Note: There may be no pending.xml files present. If so, skip the instructions above.

Load & Query COMPONENTS

• Click the Windows Start
  
  button. Type CMD in the search bar, right-click CMD and click
  
  Run as administrator.
• Copy the lines below one at a time and paste (right-click + paste) into the Command Prompt. Press Enter on your keyboard after each line.
  
  REG LOAD HKLM\COMPONENTS C:\Windows\System32\config\COMPONENTS
  REG QUERY HKLM\COMPONENTS >1&& notepad 1
  
  
• Upon completion, Notepad will open. Include the contents in your next reply.

Export Registry Key

• Click the Windows Start
  
  button. Type regedit in the search bar, right-click regedit and click
  
  Run as administrator.
• On the left side, navigate to and select the following registry key:
  
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate
  
  
• Once selected, click File, followed by Export....
• Name the file CBS and save to your Desktop.
• Right-click CBS, click Send to, followed by Compressed (zipped) folder. Attach this file in your next reply.
• Note: If the file is too large to attach, upload to a service such as Dropbox, One Drive or SendSpace and provide a direct download link in your next reply.