[SOLVED] Windows 10 22H2 system won't boot after failed attempt at uninstalling updates

[Blockboy]

Hi,
So a bit of background: my pc was running just fine before October 7th, albeit a little out of date. Nothing crazy, I'm sure I had updates from 2023 installed, but I think I was missing some updates from around August and later. On October 7th I decided to get up to date with everything windows update wanted to give me except for the 1 optional update preview. After a few restarts and further windows update checks, I was up to date, but I started noticing performance issues in windows and games, so I thought it was probably the updates. On October 9th, I tried to remove all of the updates downloaded on the 7th. I first removed everything with that date I could find in control panel's uninstall windows updates menu, but there was an update or two that didn't let me uninstall from the control panel (the uninstall option just wasn't there), so I looked up a way to get rid of everything. I forget exactly what I did, but I think I used DISM to list my packages, and I removed everything with a date of October 7th and after, rebooted my pc, and it wouldn't boot.

I would reach the windows logo for a few seconds, and then my pc would restart. It would do this a couple times before it got to the preparing automatic repair and diagnosing issues screen, and then it would say windows couldn't repair my system: try restarting or advanced options. Restarting just put me back there after a couple power-cycles. I tried the startup repair, but it wasn't able to fix anything, I tried booting into safe mode via the more startup options but it would just reboot at the windows logo like normal. I tried a system restore with a restore point from a few days before, but it eventually failed to restore, and then the restore point disappeared. I tried uninstalling the latest quality update, but it failed to uninstall it.

Since then, I've been messing around in the command prompt every day either from my windows install, or through a windows installation usb (I tried all of the same options through the usb and nothing was different, I don't even know if there's a difference between the comand prompts). I forget everything I've done, but I've tried installing updates with DISM from the update catalog, but that only worked on a service stack and maybe another update, but not a third one I also tried. I tried fixing the mbr and boot stuff but I don't know if that did anything (my windows install is MBR, at least diskpart thinks so). I've tried deleting pending update files, some of them were deleted, some weren't. I tried running farbar recovery scan tool and deleting a few registry entries it said had no file and had the attention arrow pointing to, but I don't really know what I'm doing so I figured I shouldn't do too much or risk messing things up further.

I'm not sure if I made things worse or not, but at some point, windows stopped normally going into the automatic repair and instead gave me a blue screen with Recovery at the top and an error code that changed a few times, but is currently 0x0000001. I have an ubuntu install on a removable drive, and through GRUB I'm able to get to the windows 10 automatic repair screen again. The most recent startup repair log is attached below.

I couldn't complete all of the recommended steps to create a thread normally since I can't boot into windows, but in the command prompt from the advanced options on a failed automatic repair of my windows install I tried the following:

• sfc wouldn't work with sfc /scannow because of the recovery environment, so I ran sfc /offbootdir=d:\ /offwindir=d:\windows /scannow (D:\ was the letter assigned to my windows install in this session). It resulted in Windows Resource Protection not finding any integrition violations
• DISM likewise wouldn't work with /online, so I did DISM /image:d:\ /cleanup-image /restorehealth and the restore operation completed successfully
• I tried to run components scanner, but it didn't seem to work in the recovery environment because it looked in the wrong place for the folders, but I don't know how to tell it otherwise. Components scanner tried to load registry hive from X:\windows\system32\config\components and then said hive currently in use, making backup copy. Then it said hive cannot be read, please close file and try again (system.overflowexception)
• The CBS folder had no issues and is also attached below.

Thank you for any help you're able to give me, this has been a very frustrating week.

 

[Blockboy]

Haven't touched the windows install since this post except shortly today to try the BSOD Collection Application from the BSOD section of the forum in case that would give useful information, but that wouldn't run saying my windows version wasn't supported (probably doesn't work in recovery environment). Not sure what else to do to provide more info.

Still experiencing the same issues.

 

[Blockboy]

I figured an antivirus scan wouldn't hurt, so I ran clam antivirus from an ubuntu install and had it scan my windows drive just in case. It detected a few things, but I put the files into virustotal and they seemed to be false positives. No files were deleted.

 

[Blockboy]

Since it's been over a month, I decided to try some more things, but I still don't really know if I made anything better or worse.

I managed to find a list of the specific packages I manually deleted to cause this whole mess. I think I got a list of all installed packages, but I only kept the list of ones installed on or after October 7th. I don't remember if there was a package id or something, but I only kept the package identity field. The Package for RollupFix was the only one I think that gave me an error, I don't remember if I managed to delete it or not. I also remember at least one package was marked as permanent, but I edited the properties to allow me to delete it. I tried reinstalling the servicing stack 3385 and the rollup fix, but neither of them worked. Interestingly the rollup fix seemed to have a folder with its contents in windows\servicing\lcu. I also listed my installed packages again with DISM and I noticed a lot of them were pending install. Not sure if that's related to my attempts to reinstall updates before or what. Maybe they were from the pending update files that I couldn't delete.

Spoiler: Package List

Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool Version: 10.0.19041.844 Image Version: 10.0.19045.3271 Packages listing: Package Identity : Microsoft-Windows-Client-LanguagePack-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~en-US~10.0.19041.3271 State : Installed Release Type : Language Pack Install Time : 10/9/2023 9:11 PM Package Identity : Microsoft-Windows-MediaPlayer-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.19041.3271 State : Installed Release Type : OnDemand Pack Install Time : 10/9/2023 9:11 PM Package Identity : Microsoft-Windows-Notepad-FoD-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.19041.1865 State : Installed Release Type : OnDemand Pack Install Time : 10/9/2023 9:11 PM Package Identity : Microsoft-Windows-Printing-WFS-FoD-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.19041.2604 State : Installed Release Type : OnDemand Pack Install Time : 10/9/2023 9:11 PM Package Identity : Microsoft-Windows-QuickAssist-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.19041.3271 State : Installed Release Type : OnDemand Pack Install Time : 10/9/2023 9:11 PM Package Identity : Microsoft-Windows-UserExperience-Desktop-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.19041.3031 State : Installed Release Type : OnDemand Pack Install Time : 10/9/2023 9:11 PM Package Identity : Microsoft-Windows-WordPad-FoD-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.19041.3271 State : Installed Release Type : OnDemand Pack Install Time : 10/9/2023 9:11 PM Package Identity : Package_for_RollupFix~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~19041.3271.1.15 State : Installed Release Type : Update Install Time : 10/9/2023 9:11 PM Package Identity : Package_for_ServicingStack_3385~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~19041.3385.1.0 State : Installed Release Type : Update Install Time : 10/7/2023 9:32 PM

I also tried running DISM /cleanup-image /restorehealth pointing to the install.wim file in the sources folder of the windows install usb once with /source:E:\sources\install.wim and then with /source:wim:E:\sources\install.wim:1 (E:\ being the usb), but they both completed without error and nothing was different.

I tried running components scanner again after loading the components hive from my windows install in the recovery environment (not sure if that changed anything), and it was able to complete. It found a corruption in COMPONENTS\Installers, but the log looked a little weird, so I tried to make sure it was using my windows install instead of the recovery environment. I tried changing the registry key for %windir% to point to my windows drive, and then I ran components scanner again, but it didn't seem to change anything so I stopped there. The dates being in 2019 was something I noticed in other logs, but my CMOS battery is probably dead so I assume it's just not synced or something. I have no idea why it says Windows 10 2004 though. I don't know if that's just some recovery environment weirdness or what, but I have no reason to believe I downgraded from 22H2 (in fact I never even had 2004 installed on this machine, I skipped some versions when upgrading to 22H2). Regardless, the log is attached below.


Also, thank you to anyone that viewed my logs. I appreciate you even just taking a look at my issue.

 

[Blockboy]

Final update:

I wasn't able to figure out exactly what the problem was (seems like it was something in the registry, specifically the files in C:\Windows\System32\config gave me a lot of trouble. not sure if my user.dat file for my account was corrupt or not, but I'm leaning toward if it was, then it was not enough to matter) or fully solve it, but I was able to get most of my important data backed up and then I replaced the relevant files after restoring from a 6 month old backup I had. I received help from a Sysnative staff member via DM, and I appreciate the help even if they weren't able to completely fix my issue. If anyone viewing this thread has a similar issue, sorry for giving up on this. I do still think my issue was solvable but it would have required someone with physical access to the computer to have intricate knowledge of windows and the registry.