Troublesome Windows 10 Updates Can Now Be Auto-Uninstalled By Microsoft
It can be a major pain in the backside when a Windows update borks your system, especially since Microsoft practically shoves them down our throats. To deal with that, Windows 10 will now automatically uninstall Windows updates when they cause startup problems in certain situations, Microsoft revealed in a support document.
"Windows automatically installs updates to keep your device secure and running at peak efficiency. Occasionally, these updates can fail due to incompatibility or issues in new software ... If Windows detects this, it will try to resolve the failure by uninstalling recently installed updates. This is only done when all other automatic recovery attempts have been unsuccessful," Microsoft states.
That alone would not do much good if the problematic update just reinstalls itself at the next opportunity. Fortunately, that will not happen when an update gets automatically uninstalled. Following a rollback, Microsoft says the "problematic" update will be blocked for the next 30 days.
"This will give Microsoft and our partners the opportunity to investigate the failure and fix any issues. After 30 days, Windows will again try to install the updates," Microsoft says.
Users can still manually install such updates, if they believe they should not have been removed in the first place. However, we suspect that most users will simply let Windows handle the situation on its own.
This is a wise move by Microsoft. It is not a cure all, however, as this will not help in situations where a buggy update bricks a PC or otherwise sends it into a reboot loop. But in other cases where the symptoms are not as severe, this should allow systems to run more smoothly, while still staying on top of security patches.
That said, this is not likely to remedy buggy behavior that gets introduced by Microsoft's twice-annual major upgrades to Windows 10. The October 2018 Update was particularly frustrating for some users, as it was plagued by a bunch of various issues, and even had to be pulled offline for a period of time.
