How to fix Windows 10 computer stuck in update loop to Windows 11?

Question

Since July I've seen a handful of computers in our environment start getting stuck in an update loop where the client on Windows 10 22H2 will repeatedly try and fail to update to Windows 11. The update fails each time, rolls back and then re-triggers itself leading to an endless loop that causes a lot of annoyance for the end user.

The error code Windows gives for the failure in Event Viewer is 0xc1900101, which after some research online seems to be related to a driver incompatibility. I've tried updating every available driver, rolling back every available driver, uninstalling certain drivers and nothing seems to resolve the problem. I've also verified there is more than enough space on the client for the update to complete, and there are no external drives plugged into the computers.

I've also tried running a PowerShell script to see if I was missing any prerequisite updates and found none were available so those should all be in place. I've also tried stopping the wuauserv and bits services, deleting the SoftwareDistribution folder and still the computer keeps trying and failing to update to Windows 11.

We're seeing this issue crop up on more and more clients in our environment, and the only "solution" we have so far is to re-image the computer, which is not ideal.

Any ideas for a fix? The clients having the problem are Dell OptiPlex 3090s and Latitude 5520s.

Answer 1

Update - Issue was caused by Crowdstrike antivirus blocking Windows 11 update from completing install. Uninstalling the software resolved the issue.