Windows Update problem (W10 Pro v1903)

[arthurk]

Reporting back, as I hopefully seem to have found a solution.

On looking in the registry, it seemed to be showing a setting for updates to be deferred - Feature updates by 7 days, and Quality updates by 30. I certainly haven't changed things in the registry, so I wonder if these are old default settings, or things that I might have changed in an earlier version via some now-removed settings option. Anyway, it seemed likely that these were part of the problem.

Rather than editing the registry I thought I'd look at the Group Policy, which was suggested in some of the articles I'd found. It doesn't help that the options there seem to have changed in v1903, and Microsoft's own articles about it refer to an earlier version.

I found what I needed in Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Window Update > Windows Update for Business. Nothing was currently configured, but I made two changes:

Select when Preview Builds and Feature Updates are received - set to Semi-Annual Channel, with the days to defer set at 0 (zero).

Select when Quality Updates are received - set days to defer to 0.

After making these changes I did a manual Windows Update, and it found all the updates that I was expecting.

(It first installed the 2019-10 Cumulative Update for Windows, and while this was pending restart it went on to the Malicious Software Removal Tool; this sat on "0% Installed" for a long time so I decided to restart. After this the other updates installed and the MSRT said "pending download", but after a further restart (required by one of the other updates) I checked the update history and the MSRT then showed as correctly installed.)

In sorting this out I didn't directly change anything in the registry, but it appears that as Group Policy for this is changed, the registry settings change at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate. This is a different location from one which was suggested in one of the articles I looked at.

Thanks for all input.

[hallmark]

Wow.


Good job you know your way around Computer!!


Hope that has sorted it.






 

[arthurk]

Good job you know your way around Computer!!

To some extent - note my reluctance to fiddle in the registry 

Hope that has sorted it.

Time will tell - as Andrew said, there could be more updates this month, but I might not know for sure until the next Patch Tuesday.

[arthurk]

Since I wrote the above, Windows Update found a .NET Framework update and a driver update, both in a timely manner. And the Patch Tuesday updates have also now happened on time, so it looks as though the problem is fixed.

Incidentally, the Windows update I've just got was the feature update to v1909. It was a lot smaller and quicker than previous feature updates - not that I'm complaining.

[andrewalston]

1909 is  pretty much the same under the skin as 1903, to the extent that the November Cumulative Update for it, released on the same day, is exactly the same size for both versions.

I'm currently updating my mum's old laptop, which was on 1809. I've had to clean up the registry to get rid of remnants of a video driver which didn't work properly. The "cheap and cheerful" copes OK with the ancient hardware.