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

Anonymous
2015-08-12T04:50:43+00:00

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.

Does anyone 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.

Here's my CBS.log and CheckSUR.log.

Thanks.

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

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  1. Anonymous
    2016-04-29T15:44:05+00:00

    I have been stuck on this issue for hours with nothing working.  Finally I was able to solve it by doing things in this order.

    1. Turn off Automatic Windows Updates.
    2. Open Control Panel > Uninstall a program > View installed updates and wait for it to finish loading.
    3. Search for KB3035583 and uninstall it.
    4. Restart the PC.
    5. Launch Disk cleanup.  Once it opens click the button to Clean up system files.
    6. There will be the Windows 10 files in there listed under either Temporary Installation Files or Windows Update, the file will most likely be over 4GBs.
    7. Place a checkmark next to it and click OK to delete the files.
    8. Restart.
    9. Launch Regedit (Backup first) and delete this Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update\RebootRequired.
    10. Check for Windows Updates.
    11. Hide Update KB3035583.
    12. Install Updates.
    13. Turn on Automatic Windows Updates.

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  2. Anonymous
    2016-03-10T14:25:41+00:00

    If anyone is still looking in here....

    I had this problem with a machine and managed to persuade it with the following changes in the registry:

    As documented in this article - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3080351  I set the machine not to do the Windows upgrade (although it had already been started). I also removed the temporary installation files for the Win10 upgrade.

    But this left the machine in the state described in this post - insisting that it needed to restart to finish the previous installation - by which I am pretty sure it means the Win10 upgrade.

    I then modified the following keys in the registry which had the desired effect:

    HKLM\Software\Microsoft\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\AutoUpdate\OSUpgradePendingRestart changed value from 1 to 0

    HKLM\Software\Microsoft\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade\AllowOSUpgrade changed value from 1 to 0

    After a restart I visited Windows update and it reported the "Windows 10 installation has failed" (which is good). A check for updates listed some optional updates with a nice green shield.

    Hopefully the situation will last but this seems to have confirmed to the update system that it is no longer in the middle of an OS upgrade.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-07-10T17:11:29+00:00

    After having tried every Microsoft fixit available for this issue and every in-the-wild fix I was about to give up and go the hard route of a clean install. After finding this solution and spending about 1 minute editing the suggested registry values the problem is resolved and WU is functioning normally again. THANK YOU!

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-08-20T19:52:03+00:00

    Still not resolved. I notice that the "other people had this question" count is continuously increasing. And what I did isn't too crazy, so I expect that a lot of other people have or will have this issue. Microsoft should really have someone look into how to fix this, and probably adjust the relevant updates so that it can't occur.

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-08-13T03:10:23+00:00

    I'm in the exact same position as original poster, same sequence of events.  My 7 SP1 installation now has no ability to receive Microsoft updates, including security updates, because of the problem as described.  The original nagware didn't make a clear distinction between downloading and installing Windows 10, which is why I aborted mid-process as the OP did.  I will install Windows 10 likely in a year or so.

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