Windows 8 updates won't install

Thanks for responding

To answer your questions

1.       No changes made that I am aware of. As I said in my original post, have uninstalled the only new software and the problem persists

2.       There is no error code. There are 7 important updates. Installation fails at 15%, retries, and then reverts without completing the installation. The download and installation proceed and the failure is after restart.

I have spent 5 hours connected to Microsoft Technical Support with the result that my system was caused to freeze by their actions. I have managed to restore my pc and tried to reconnect the following day to the technical support website without success.

I have tried to install the updates innumerable times

I have run the troubleshooter innumerable times

Windows Update service is , and has been running automatically

I have tried a clean boot

I have tried installing the updates one by one

I have gained the impression that Windows 8 is fundamentally flawed and Microsoft seems to be ignoring this and their customers. Trial and error solutions are being proposed and tried by Microsoft personnel. The public are expected to carry out lengthy exploratory investigation; this should not be expected of people who mostly will not have the necessary skills. Windows 8 should be fit for purpose.

You're absolutely correct, Gerry. I've been diagnosed with mantle cell lymphoma, the rarest & most aggressive form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer known to man. A friend of my wife & I got together with more friends and purchased me a brand-new Compaq notebook to take to my treatments with me so I can video chat with my wife & daughter when I have to stay in the hospital for the more aggressive chemo treatments & a stem cell transplant in the spring. The computer seemed to work ok, other than getting used to this new "start" screen with these useless "apps", for awhile. It especially started to work better & with more speed after I installed my staples like CCleaner & REVO Uninstall, and got rid of a bunch of useless junk including the cruddy little 60 day trial of Norton. But, over the last week or so it's been doing what EVERYONE else with the wonderful new Windows 8 installed on their machines is, it starts "Configuring Windows updates", gets to "12%", and stalls. Twenty to thirty minutes later it will try again, then after another similar failure will just give up & start. I went into the update history and discovered about 85% of them, since I took this Compaq out of the box NEW on 11-25, have FAILED. Microsoft absolutely BLEW it with this OS, thankfully my old DELL PCs here in the house all run XP and are absolutely flawless. Of course this doesn't help me when I have to go back to Boston for my chemotherapy, thanks Microsoft! I can only hope that they'll either figure out how to fix this obviously HUGE flaw in Windows 8, or offer me a free Windows 7 upgrade. I would consider 7 an UPGRADE from 8 because I've used a laptop with 7 and it works great.

I don't have any "Nalpeiron Licensing Service" in my Compaq notebook, yet I still cannot install update KB2770917.

OK, an update. I figured it out. Guess you have to have a degree in computing science or something to run Windows 8. Shutting down non-MS services alone did NOTHING, however I figured out a way to install the updates that WILL install anyway. Go into Control Panel, System and Security, Windows Update, and UNCHECK them all. Then check each one by one and install them all manually one at a time. I've also changed the update preferences to inform me when there's new ones, not just try to automatically download & install them. I had 9 "important" updates that would not install before, now 8 of them are done and I weeded out the bad one: Update for Windows 8 for x64-based Systems (KB2770917). I've read in other threads that I may have to uninstall & reinstall BOTH my video and audio drivers to stop this one from getting hung up. I think I'm going to start a movement to keep Windows XP alive, petitions, Facebook page, the whole deal. I don't like how 7 is antisocial to XP (can't access my 3 DELL PCs on my home network with a laptop with 7, my friend has one), I absolutely HATE 8 with this dumb "app" foolishness and it's troublesome updating, and let's face it, Vista is just like ME, a mistake that MS would probably like to sweep under the rug and forget about. Thanks to everyone here for your help.

Hi Everyone,

Sorry to hear I am not the only one suffering with update issues on Windows 8. I wasted far too many hours following the suggestions on this forum but to no avail.

Finally, solved this issue by performing a Windows 8 PC refresh. Slide your mouse down (or swipe from) the left hand desktop edge to access the 'Settings' charm; click 'Change PC settings' (bottom option); select the 'General' heading under 'PC settings', scroll down and click the 'Get started' button under the 'Refresh your PC without affecting your files' heading.

NB This option will uninstall all you 'old' windows style applications (which you will need to re-install manually afterwards) but it does preserve all your user files and settings.

After performing this procedure I was able to install all current Windows 8 updates from the Windows Update console. Now I just need to re-install all my old Windows applications and hopefully that will be me sorted.

Best Regards & Good Luck,

Dr Nick

PS I am not sure why the Windows support guys on this forum haven't suggested this option as it's far easier than messing around with boot options and it actually resolves the issue!

I just ran into this problem this evening. I am running Windows 8 through Parallels on a Mac i7 machine. One of the clues below about launching msconfig and disabling the non-microsoft services led me to the culprit. No updates would download. There were two Parallels services: Parallels Coherance Service and Parallels Tools Service. They were both running. I simply stopped both services, and now the updates can be downloaded.

I suspect there may still be some bugs with Parallels, but overall it's a fine solution. Hope this helps someone!