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Screen stuck on "Updates are underway. Please keep your computer on."

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Anonymous
2023-03-23T00:54:46+00:00

I really need to fix this problem. I tried using the troubleshooter before restarting but that was stuck too. It said I had to reboot first. How can I fix this issue without destroying or corrupting any important Windows components?

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Windows update

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-03-23T01:36:00+00:00

    Good day! I'm Raniel. I understand your frustration regarding this issue and I'll do my best to help.

    If it is still stuck on that screen, perform a hard shutdown (press and hold the power button for 5-10 seconds until it turns off), disconnect your peripherals, unplug/replug your power cable and turn it back on and see if the updates will install or rollback.

    Kindly perform a reset of your windows update components using this reset script (ensure that you are running the command prompt as an administrator). Please refer to this article: https://www.elevenforum.com/t/reset-windows-upd...

    Once done, reboot the machine and reinstall the updates.

    I also suggest that you refer to the steps on these articles to further troubleshoot the issue:

    https://support.microsoft.com/windows/troublesh...

    https://support.microsoft.com/windows/get-help-...

    I hope this helps. Good luck!

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  1. Anonymous
    2023-10-15T19:36:35+00:00

    I got my Lenovo X1 carbon and installed all critical updates after finishing the initial set up per Lenovo Vantage recommendation. I thought I was stuck as the screen stayed on that stupid message for more than 45 minutes. I almost gave up but after around the one hour mark, the process finally concluded. So my advice to give yourself 2 hours before deciding to do any tweaking.

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  2. Anonymous
    2023-12-11T20:17:35+00:00

    Fresh install of windows 11 23h1 on 2 year old pc running ryzen 7 4000 and 16 gigs of ram experienece.

    No I do not want o365, no I do not want backups, onedrive and no I do not want microsoft telemetry. Making sure you have latest updates twice, nevermind.

    After install Updates, downloading for 2 hours on 50mbps internet, stuck, have to reboot, fan noise always there. Some updates failed, number of reboots. Cumulative update. Updates unerway stuck after 20 min, forced hard reboot. Another 5 minutes of underway. All uninstalled store apps reinstalling back, take syet another hour. Uninstall again. Fan still blowing. 38 percent of 16 gb ram eaten.

    Seriously, Microsoft, have some respect for your users.

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  3. Anonymous
    2023-12-10T20:29:52+00:00

    I can confirm. I waited 3 hours on my HP laptop. Took a shower, Did a crossword with the wife. Went to the internet on my desktop box to find out if something was borked, and eventually the laptop just rebooted and all was well.

    On the flipside, my wife's laptop last year got stuck on an update, and then it said "wait, windows is recovering files". It then erased every single file on her hard drive.

    Every.

    Single.

    One.

    It's a Linux box now.

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  4. Anonymous
    2023-10-22T19:27:56+00:00

    I have a very similar problem! And yes, if you wait enough it finally ends restarting the computer. Then I go to check if there still some updates to the “Windows Update” screen and it seems that every thing is up to date. So I go and restart my computer and it goes again to the “Updates are underway. Please keep your computer on.” screen. And everytime is the same. I’ve repeat this process for 8 times and it does the same thing. I’ve checked the history updated and everything seems to be ok.

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