NEW WINDOWS UPDATE GOES WRONG

10 vital steps to stop it wrecking your PC (surprise, surprise!)

InSTEP 1

Issue 512 (see our Workshop on page 35), we explained how best to prepare your PC for the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (FCU). Some users have encountered problems when trying to update their PC, so

we’ll guide you through the process using Windows Update. We’ll address some of the most common problems experienced during and after updating your PC and explain the best ways to fix them.

To update your PC to the FCU, open Settings, click ‘Update & Security’, then click the ‘Check for updates’ button. If you see ‘Feature update to Windows 10, version 1709’ 1 , your PC is already downloading the FCU and you’ll see a progress bar 2 . If you don’t see this, you need to install a raft of earlier Windows 10 updates first. The FCU can take a few hours to download. During the process you’ll be prompted to restart your PC and you may encounter various error messages that can halt the update until they’re resolved.

STEP 2

For example, you may see a pop-up message with a ‘0x80245006’ error code. The best way to fix this is to return to ‘Update & Security’, select Troubleshoot 1 , click Windows Update 2 , then click the ‘Run the troubleshooter’ button 3 . Windows Update will search for potential problems. Click ‘Apply this fix’ 4 when prompted. You’ll see a list of problems that were detected and fixed. You can then return to Windows Update 5 and try updating your PC again.

STEP 3Two more common error codes are ‘0x80190001’ or ‘0x80070070’. These usually indicate that your C Drive doesn’t have enough storage space for the new Windows update. The quickest way to remove space hogs from your C Drive is to press the Windows key, type disk cleanup 1 , then click the relevant option 2 to open it. Next, click OK, the ‘Clean up system files’ button 3 , then click OK again. The tool will now take a few minutes to scan your C Drive.

STEP 6

In the Device Manager, use the dropdown menus 1 to find the faulty driver, right-click it, click ‘Uninstall device’ 2 then follow the onscreen prompts to remove it. To uninstall a problematic program or app, open Settings, click Apps, ‘Apps & features’, select the app, then click Uninstall. If you see an error code starting with ‘0xc1900101’ followed by a driver’s name, you need to update that driver instead 3 . If you still see this error code, then disconnect any peripheral devices (such as USB sticks, hard drives, storage devices, etc) from your PC, then try updating it again.

STEP 4

Once that’s done, you’ll see how much storage space you can recover 1 . Tick all the items you don’t need, including Recycle Bin, Temporary Internet Files, Temporary Files, System Error Memory Dump Files, Previous Windows Installation(s), Temporary Windows Installation Files and Windows Setup Temporary files 2 . Click OK 3 , then Delete Files 4 to confirm. When that’s done, restart your PC and try updating it again.

STEP 5

At some point you may see a blue screen telling you that a particular driver 1 or app is preventing the FCU upgrade and which problems it could cause after updating 2 . To continue with the update you will need to uninstall this item. After updating, you can always try reinstalling it to see if it works. To uninstall a faulty driver, press the Windows key, type device manager, then press Enter to see all your PC’S drivers.

STEP 7

In some cases, the FCU update may stop mid-way and you’ll see the error messages: ‘Error: We couldn’t complete the updates. Undoing changes. Don’t turn off your computer’ or ‘Error: Failure configuring Windows Updates. Reverting changes’ (or similar). To check what the problem is, open Settings, ‘Update & security’, Windows Update, then click ‘View installed update history’. Click the failed update to see a description of the problem 1 , then click the ‘More info’ link 2 to see possible fixes.

STEP 9Another common problem with the FCU is that you may not see some of the default Windows 10 apps in your Start Menu. Even if you find them via a search, they won’t open when clicked. If so, open Settings, click Apps, ‘Apps & features’ 1 , select the app you can’t open (Microsoft Edge 2 in our screenshot), click the ‘Advanced options’ link 3 , then the Repair button. If you still can’t open the app, click the Reset button. This deletes any app data and restores its original settings.

STEP 8

One common problem is that FCU removes Onedrive from some PCS. If you notice this, the best fix is to manually download the latest version of Onedrive ( www.snipca.com/26042 – click the Download button, run the downloaded setup file, then log in when prompted). Once that’s done, right-click the Onedrive icon 1 in your PC’S notification area, click the Settings tab 2 , then tick ‘Save space and download files as you use them’ 3 , then click OK 4 . This activates the FCU’S new Onedrive Files On-demand feature (for more information on this see Issue 513, page 58). STEP If you use a laptop-tablet hybrid, you’ll 10 notice that the onscreen keyboard opens every time you log into Windows 10 FCU. To stop this, press the Windows key, type services, then press Enter. Next, double-click the ‘Touch Keyboard and Handwriting Panel Service’ 1 . Click the General tab 2 , select Disabled in the ‘Startup type’ dropdown menu 3 , click Apply 4 , then OK. ●

You can find more fixes at www.answers. ● microsoft.com by entering your problem into the search field. If you still have problems, email our Problems Solved team at noproblem@ computeractive.co.uk.