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Windows 10 Windows Update Issue

It just doesn't work!

By on August 9, 2015 2:52:16 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Major Stress

Join Date 05/2006
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Yes i made the jump to Windows 10, because it actually IS better for gamers. As a Gaming OS it is outstanding. Games that i had problems with running in XP, 7, or 8 run smoothly in 10. However gaming, and surfing the web is about all that W-10 is good for IMO. I havent figured out all the power user functions yet (if they havent been locked out).

Now i have run into the Windows Update issue. What WU does is absolutely nothing at all! Just blue dots just go across app like a wannabe cylon centurian (see image).

 

 

 

I Let it run for 4 hours, and absolutely nothing happens. No access to settings, No control. No nothing. Cant find anything on MS, or the web about this (though i found a ton of other W-10 windows update issues) I don't know what the settings are, because i cant even access them! I am very close to nuking this thing from orbit (Just to be sure).

I upgraded from W-8.1. Instead of doing a clean install. I probably should have done a clean install. Though i have the media, and cd key to do a clean install. I just didn't want to be arsed with it at the time. Everything seemed to have went smooth during the upgrade. except for this. There is supposedly a 300+ meg update out there that i cant seem to access now. I cant access the installed updates screen.

Any suggestions? (Other than to "Kill it with FIRE"!)

 

 

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August 9, 2015 3:33:05 PM from Elemental Forums Elemental Forums

eh.... does that mean you have a retail win 10 copy? but used the free upgrade instead?

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August 9, 2015 3:34:23 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

I took a whack at a MS search and came up with a list that looks like it might be promising, in case you didn't happen to come up with them.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/search?adv=1&query=windows%2010%20windows%20update%20hangs

The first thread I looked at seemed like it might be worth a look, sounds similar:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/insider/forum/insider_wintp-insider_update/windows-10-update-just-hangs-cant-restart-or-stop/21d80d88-1bed-4a9d-af30-21594057ddf4?auth=1

It's always an adventure. 

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August 9, 2015 4:24:04 PM from Elemental Forums Elemental Forums

maybe that's why it's down and maybe he dodged a bullet

 http://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-cumulative-update-causes-reboot-loop-havoc-for-some-users/

===

i'm thinking.. when i get around to doing a fresh win 7 install on the new machine (whenever i buy it, that is.... funny thing.. read that skylake and win 7 install.... don't go together well.. need to flip some switch in bios before it can even be done.. and can't be done via usb either) and then do the upgrade... i'll do a wipe and fresh install right after that

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August 9, 2015 7:06:01 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

This is precisely why I'm waiting. I could do the upgrade to Win 10 but nope...I'll wait until I have enough bucks to buy a machine wit it installed. Hopefully by then all the bugs will have been given the boot.

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August 9, 2015 7:20:29 PM from JoeUser Forums JoeUser Forums

What a cluster MS is.

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August 9, 2015 7:25:58 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

Quoting Uvah,

Hopefully by then all the bugs will have been given the boot.

I admire your optimism 

[From what I can tell that WinUpdate service has been potentially contrary ever since XP.]

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August 9, 2015 7:40:02 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums


Any suggestions?

One odd thing that I did turn up while trying to fix WinUpdate a little while back - 

There was an isolated MS thread where several people (about 10ish) said that the only way they had gotten it to work, after trying "everything else", was by updating their motherboard drivers.  Those people were doing fresh installs of Win7 and the update would just sit there kind of like yours is doing, they didn't have Win7 motherboard drivers installed yet.  I couldn't try it, no drivers out there for me.  I know it's odd, but there it is.

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August 9, 2015 8:34:24 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

Quoting Uvah,

This is precisely why I'm waiting. I could do the upgrade to Win 10 but nope...I'll wait until I have enough bucks to buy a machine wit it installed. Hopefully by then all the bugs will have been given the boot.

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August 10, 2015 1:38:28 AM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

Thanks for the responses.

My W-10 adventure got even better, because something happened (i have no freaking clue what), and i did in fact run into that endless reboot loop. So i nuked it from orbit. I tried to use the installation media i made with W-10 installed. With the CD key i pulled from that same W-10 installation... Why am i not surprised that it didn't work? It said the cd key was invalid (no. i didn't typo it). How the hell is the cd key invalid when that was the cd key used to upgrade to W-10 to begin with?!

So i did another nuke from orbit. deleted all of the partitions, formatted the drive, and re-installed the windows 8.1 that came with the laptop (It may be crap, but at least IT WORKS!). Then i made damn sure i uninstalled, and hid the "upgrade to windows 10" nagware from windows update.

I lost nothing, but time, because i had everything backed up, but i think i will wait a year, or so before i attempt this again. IMO While when it worked it was good for gaming, but W-10 is a bug ridden POS that makes Windows Millennium look like Windows 7!! In its current state W-10 is far more trouble than what its worth right now. Despite the fact that its "free".

I would rather pay for an OS that is "somewhat" bug free, and WORKS. Than be a glorified "beta tester" for a force upgraded "free" OS that does NOT work. So yea, Windows 10 can wait.

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August 10, 2015 2:18:06 AM from Elemental Forums Elemental Forums

when you say it's the cd key used to upgrade to win 10... that means it's the win 8 cdkey? i have a feeling you don't need the cd key at all during the clean install.... if your machine has been activated already with win 10. it should reactivate itself again.

 

http://www.ghacks.net/2015/07/29/how-to-do-a-clean-install-of-windows-10/

(around middle of the page)

 

as for wiping it and installing win 8. you might encounter license problems doing it that way... because your win 8 key was changed into a win 10 key on their end during the upgrade.. (not sure how that works either...)  and you need to downgrade it back to a win 8 key within 30 days (via roll back thing. not really certain how if you've nuked it.)

 

===

this is interesting.. it's retail.. but not retail after a year.

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/software/operating-systems/1403707/windows-7-and-8-retail-users-cant-transfer-windows-10-after-a

 

===

incidentally... unless you had a retail win 10 disk and key, you wouldn't have been able to do a clean install in the 1st place.. because you needed to upgrade it once on that machine before you can do clean installs (on that machine)

 

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August 10, 2015 10:19:16 AM from JoeUser Forums JoeUser Forums

Quoting alaknebs,

when you say it's the cd key used to upgrade to win 10... that means it's the win 8 cdkey? i have a feeling you don't need the cd key at all during the clean install.... if your machine has been activated already with win 10. it should reactivate itself again.



http://www.ghacks.net/2015/07/29/how-to-do-a-clean-install-of-windows-10/

(around middle of the page)



as for wiping it and installing win 8. you might encounter license problems doing it that way... because your win 8 key was changed into a win 10 key on their end during the upgrade.. (not sure how that works either...) and you need to downgrade it back to a win 8 key within 30 days (via roll back thing. not really certain how if you've nuked it.)



===

this is interesting.. it's retail.. but not retail after a year.

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/software/operating-systems/1403707/windows-7-and-8-retail-users-cant-transfer-windows-10-after-a



===

incidentally... unless you had a retail win 10 disk and key, you wouldn't have been able to do a clean install in the 1st place.. because you needed to upgrade it once on that machine before you can do clean installs (on that machine)

Wha???

That gave me a headache.

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August 10, 2015 11:08:27 AM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

If you are going to do a clean install of Windows 10 read this first. There are a lot of steps you must follow before performing a clean install. It doesn't matter if you are switching from 32bit to 64bit, the clean install process is the same for a clean install of Windows 10.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wiki/windows_10-win_upgrade/how-to-switch-from-32-bit-versions-of-windows-to/40d90c4e-8845-4bcb-bb2f-aeab312caf74?tm=1435903519828

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August 10, 2015 12:50:53 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

Two weeks on and I'm still waiting for the taskbar icon thingie to tell me the Win 10 update is available for my tablet/laptop. 

I keep getting  "We're still evaluating your mchine for the Win 10 upgrade." 

I'm in no hurry to install it or anything, but everyone else I know has either installed the upgrade or has it available for installation.  So yeah, I'm wondering if MS has been reading my 'derogatory' comments here on WC and disabled it out of spite.

Nah, I did read it could take up to two weeks or more for some people, so I'm not panicking.  I have actually downloaded the ISO and could do a clean install that way if I wanted, but I'm a bit like Uvah in that regard and will wait a while longer  When that time comes, however, I will most likely perform a clean install and do away with all the HP 'extras' and the recovery partition HP created for Win 8.1, being it'd no longer be required.

As for Win 10 on the desktop, I am preparing a machine in readiness for it because I'm still far to hesitant to install it on my main rig at this time.  That requires a lot more procrastination, me thinks.

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August 10, 2015 1:00:05 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

No. It was not my original windows 8 key. I read up on all that before i did the upgrade. Plus on how to find your cdkey from your existing windows installation. What i did was pull the new cdkey from windows 10 AFTER i upgraded. So the key i pulled was a windows 10 key. Which was a totally different key than what i had for the old windows 8 installation. I triple checked the Windows 10 key. Then i created the USB Windows 10 installation media as a backup. Using the MS media creation tool.

I didn't format anything until after the key rejection. I tried starting up from the usb i created. When that failed i tried installing from already loaded windows 10. That failed as well (endless reboot loop). It still kept asking me for a key, and kept rejecting the key i had. I couldn't try resetting the PC, because i was stuck in the endless boot loop. It wouldn't have been a "clean" install, because W-10 doesn't give you that option. The intention was to let windows delete all my old files during the installation. Funny that the "repair" option was grayed out.

I did the same thing for my windows 8 backup (usb media backup), and that worked like a charm, because my windows 8 key is embedded into the firmware of my laptop. I still had the windows 8 key handy just in case.

What i think is going on is that you need a different cdkey for each install. Or windows 10 creates a different key for each upgrade over windows 7, or 8. You cant use the same key for more than one installation (even if its the same computer). Unless its an OEM installation like retail CD's (not even sure OEM media will do the same thing or not). More research will need to be done, but i'm not going to experiment, and bar-b-q the hard drive on my laptop any more.

Like i said i may give it another go later on down the road. When most of the issues are fixed, but right now W-10 is just a major hassle.

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August 10, 2015 1:01:44 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

Quoting alaknebs,

as for wiping it and installing win 8. you might encounter license problems doing it that way... because your win 8 key was changed into a win 10 key on their end during the upgrade.. (not sure how that works either...) and you need to downgrade it back to a win 8 key within 30 days (via roll back thing. not really certain how if you've nuked it.)

No, I thought that as well, but on a different PC, my Windows 8.1 key still activates Windows 8.1.

 

The Windows 8.1 rig that I upgraded, which had the same key, WAS changed to a Windows 10 key. The original Windows 8.1 key continues to work and activate.

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August 10, 2015 5:22:02 PM from Elemental Forums Elemental Forums

i know what you are saying. just being paranoid because of that 30 day thing. (if you don't downgrade within 30 days, you are stuck with win 10 and your win 8 key invalidated. don't know how they define downgrade aside from using the rollback from within win 10)

and like i mention earlier, the article above basically says you don't need a cdkey if you are re-installing on the same hardware because somehow ms knows...

quote from that article off another article

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-10/media-creation-tool-install

If you upgraded to Windows 10 on this PC by taking advantage of the free upgrade offer and successfully activated Windows 10 on this PC in the past, you won't have a Windows 10 product key, and you can skip the product key page by selecting the Skip button. Your PC will activate online automatically so long as the same edition of Windows 10 was successfully activated on this PC by using the free Windows 10 upgrade offer.

 

then again... http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/software/operating-systems/1401617/how-to-clean-install-windows-10-and-create-boot-media

basically says, if you want to transfer win 10 (upgraded from win 7/8 retail) to another machine you'll need to install win 7/8 on that machine and then upgrade.. before you can do clean installs on that machine. (works until summer next year)

 

all very confusing.

 

========

incidentally.. for those sticking with win 10... set update to not auto-reboot

 http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=904

 

 

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August 10, 2015 8:46:33 PM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

Interesting thread.  I ran update from Windows 7 without a hitch although it took a long time.  When I read about going back to Windows 7, it said I would need the Windows 7 key which I have. However, Windows 10 is working fine so no need.  I belong to a couple of geek sites and the people who are having the most trouble are those who did a clean install.  If an clean install is done, it loads Windows 10 drivers which may cause problems.  Fortunately, the only thing I had to fix was the resolution for my monitor.  I ran the DVD that came with it and all is well.  Also, it was mentioned that Asus computers had more issues than other brands.  No idea if that is actually true as I have a Dell.  Hope you get it all sorted out and don't need to do a clean install.  If  you have the drivers that came with your computer you might want to try using them if you are having problems.  I've also run Windows Update here since I installed Windows 10 and there was no problem although it was not a lot of updates. 

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September 1, 2015 11:23:40 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire Forums Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

I just recently had Windows 10 update installed in my Windows laptop, it's been working great

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September 2, 2015 1:10:45 AM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

Quoting alaknebs,

(if you don't downgrade within 30 days, you are stuck with win 10 and your win 8 key invalidated.

 

I don't know that this is accurate. I have upgraded a Windows 8.1 PC to Windows 10, then used the Windows 8.1 key from said PC to install AND activate on a different PC.

 

Upgrading a PC to Windows 10 simply "changes" the key to a Windows 10 key, it does not disable the old Windows 8.1 key. Unless, maybe, the key is an OEM key.

 

 

Quoting RedneckDude,

No, I thought that as well, but on a different PC, my Windows 8.1 key still activates Windows 8.1.

The Windows 8.1 rig that I upgraded, which had the same key, WAS changed to a Windows 10 key. The original Windows 8.1 key continues to work and activate.

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September 2, 2015 7:29:43 AM from Ashes of the Singularity Forums Ashes of the Singularity Forums

As far as I have understand the upgrade process from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10, you don't get a key, nor is your key invalidated.  You need to log into your Microsoft account that you made for Windows 8 or make one if upgrading from Windows 7.  When you log in and register your Win10 upgrade, the activation for Win10 with the hardware's signature is stored.

Basically, I did the upgrade process first from Windows 7.  The drivers did not update properly, leaving most of my devices not working properly.  I wiped the C drive and performed a clean install.  I used no key for the clean install, just logged in as my Microsoft account and everything went from there.  Everything is running smoothly.

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September 2, 2015 9:07:46 AM from WinCustomize Forums WinCustomize Forums

Yeah, I got sick of seeing it there cos I'm not going there.  Win 10 is not happening on this machine, so the "Get Windows 10" icon is gone from my system tray.  Mind you, it took four attempts to get rid of it using the 'Uninstall Update' option.. and then I had to resort to a registry edit to be sure it was completely gone.  It was as if MS had coded that particular update to resist being removed, it was that stubborn.  Anyway, I revisited the article, to which you linked, and found the regedit which terminated the icon for sure.... along with hiding the 'feature' from future updates.

Anyhow, thanks for providing the link, it was quite useful.

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September 2, 2015 10:32:07 AM from Elemental Forums Elemental Forums

Quoting lightning_bug_x,

As far as I have understand the upgrade process from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10, you don't get a key, nor is your key invalidated.  You need to log into your Microsoft account that you made for Windows 8 or make one if upgrading from Windows 7. 

 

Hope that's not exactly the case. I never created a microsoft account for my one Windows 8 install. I simply made a local account so that it behaves like any other windows install over the years.

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September 3, 2015 10:01:03 AM from Ashes of the Singularity Forums Ashes of the Singularity Forums

Quoting BlackSmokeDMax,


Quoting lightning_bug_x,

As far as I have understand the upgrade process from Windows 7 or 8 to Windows 10, you don't get a key, nor is your key invalidated.  You need to log into your Microsoft account that you made for Windows 8 or make one if upgrading from Windows 7. 



 

Hope that's not exactly the case. I never created a microsoft account for my one Windows 8 install. I simply made a local account so that it behaves like any other windows install over the years.

 

Hopefully just activating Windows 10 after the upgrade is good enough for registering the system on Microsoft's servers, then.  People with the free Win10 upgrade will not receive a key.  Windows 10 pulls the key from MS's server based on the hardware signature that was recorded to their servers.  You just skip the step asking for a CD key during the clean install.  All that is required is that you ran the Win10 upgrade first and it was activated.

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