Did a Windows update break my PC?

Q

A few days ago, my Windows 10 PC updated itself, and I allowed it to install updates, then shut down. Yesterday, I switched it back on and waited while it finished updating, but all I got was a black screen and a message about personalised settings. I’m not sure if it was something I did, but after some time this disappeared, leaving me with just a black screen and my mouse cursor. I waited, then I tried turning it off and on again, but I still ended up with a black screen. Did the update break my PC? Sally Carpenter

A

It’s probably nothing you did, but it does sound like something went wrong with the final stage of the update. The first thing we’d suggest is to boot into Safe Mode. Start the PC, and when the cursor appears press Ctrl+alt+del and click the power icon at the bottom right of your screen. Hold down the Shift key and select Restart, then wait a few moments and you should see an options screen. Select Troubleshoot, then ‘Advanced options’, then Start-up Settings and choose Restart. Next, choose option four to enable Safe Mode.

If your PC boots successfully into Safe Mode, you’ll probably find that, after another restart, it will boot normally into Windows. If not, retrace the steps above to access the ‘Advanced options’ menu. If you’ve previously enabled System Restore on your PC, select that option, then log in and follow the prompts until you see the list of restore points. Choose the one before the most recent updates, click Next and allow the process to complete.

If you see the message ‘No restore points have been created on your computer’s system drive’, or if you’re still unable to reboot after the restore completes, return to ‘Advanced options’ and this time select Start-up Repair (see screenshot). Log in when prompted and allow Windows to diagnose and attempt to fix the problem. That should sort things out.