Issue with installing updates on Windows 8.1.

Anonymous

I am told (windows update) that there are three important updates available. But when they run they get to c89% and fail. PC reboots and undoes changes. This repeats about very fifth boot. It's getting tedious. When does Microsoft propose to issue an update that works? And why was this update not properly tested?

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49 answers

Anonymous

Doesn't mean much to me. I can't see dism.exe in winsxs

Let me try to explain the pipeline that you just executed, more or less successfully. FWIW I didn't have any authorization issues but they are easy to deal with using a few more flags on the dir command. Actually dir in Powershell is just an alias for the Get-ChildItem cmdlet but I think you can get the same help for either using get-help or -? appended to your command.

The first stage does a search of all subdirectories of C:\Windows (your current directory) for files (and directories) which match the pattern *dism.exe. The pipe operator, similar to the pipe operator in cmd shell just passes all the objects found in the first stage to the second stage.

The second stage is just a second way of processing the file names that the first stage found, in order to maximize the amount of information we can display about each, including especially the version information for each.

It would probably help for you to look at the properties that each object found passes with it this way.

PS C:\windows> dir -Filter "*dism.exe" -Recurse	Select-Object -First 1	Format-List *

E.g. doing that would show you that there is no magic in the Property name I picked for Get-Item to be done to. It is just a way of maintaining the current directory and examine the properties of each of the files which were found as fully qualified names instead of somehow relatively named ones.

In fact, now I just realized that we don't even need that second stage at all. Apparently this will do the same thing, except that now I do get that authorization error on C:\Windows\CSC (whatever it is).

PS C:\windows> dir -Filter "*dism.exe" -Recurse	Format-List *

Oh well. As I said, I'm no Powershell expert; I just use it. ; )

Looking at your output though I am perplexed. There are differences that I would not expect, particularly regarding the lengths. Try this pipeline next and compare with my output.

PS C:\windows> dir -Filter "*dism.exe" -Recurse -ErrorAction:SilentlyContinue

ft Length, FullName -AutoSize -HideTableHeaders 275456 C:\windows\System32\Dism.exe 211968 C:\windows\SysWOW64\Dism.exe 25734 C:\windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.16384_none_4f680322e1a371ba\Dism.exe 275456 C:\windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.17031_none_4f9af566e17dbc2c\Dism.exe 20293 C:\windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.16384_none_f349679f29460084\Dism.exe 211968 C:\windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.17031_none_f37c59e329204af6\Dism.exe

What I thought you might be able to do was just copy the AMD64 17031 from WinSxS to System32 but I can't suggest that if we have different lengths. We do seem to have consistent lengths in the 32-bit case though, so perhaps you could try the same repair on it instead, e.g. copy the X86 17031 from WinSxS to SysWOW64.

That is assuming that SFC doesn't fix this for you, of course. Have you tried that? Aha. I just noticed that SFC has a rarely used option which might be ideal for this. /SCANFILE= So, if the standard syntax doesn't fix it, have a go with that instead? Otherwise plan B would be the manual copying--but only if the lengths make sense. I think the versions make sense but this may be an instance of real corruption.

HTH

Robert

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Anonymous

2014-06-01T21:04:48+00:00

Hi WardAwk,

You seem to have an old version of the Windows Update Agent installed for some unknown reason. The current version is 7.9.9600.17093 as can be seen in the screenshot. This might be the cause of your problems.

What I suggest you do here to try and correct this is the reset the Windows Update components using this Fixit: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058/en-us

Then follow instructions in this article to update the Windows Update Agent. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949104/en-us

Microsoft doesn't appear to have updated the version mentioned in the WUA article and that's also showing an older version. But the rest of the instructions are up to date.
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Anonymous

2014-06-01T20:52:34+00:00

Hi Shawn

Looks like I'm going to have to do just that.

I'll take your reply as a tacit admission of failure and an acceptance of the fact that the win8 - 8,1 - update is a major ****-up that is negatively affecting hundreds, if not thousands, of rather disgruntled windows users.
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Anonymous

2014-06-01T20:49:04+00:00

Hi Robert

I tried the pipeline but there were several access denied errors (you can see that I'm running it with admin privs):

and the output was:

PSPath : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\softwaredistribution.bak\Download\367ea478b6d14d929c45a19dc20a53e5\x86_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.17031_none_f37c59e329204af6\Dism.exe

PSParentPath : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\softwaredistribution.bak\Download\367ea478b6d14d929c45a19dc20a53e5\x86_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.17031_none_f37c59e329204af6

PSChildName : Dism.exe

PSDrive : C

PSProvider : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem

PSIsContainer : False

VersionInfo : File: C:\Windows\softwaredistribution.bak\Download\367ea478b6d14d929c45a19dc20a53e5\x86_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.17031_none_f37c59e329204af6\Dism.exe

InternalName: dism

OriginalFilename: DISM.EXE

FileVersion: 6.3.9600.17031 (winblue_gdr.140221-1952)

FileDescription: Dism Image Servicing Utility

Product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System

ProductVersion: 6.3.9600.17031

Debug: False

Patched: False

PreRelease: False

PrivateBuild: False

SpecialBuild: False

Language: English (United States)

BaseName : Dism

Mode : -a---

Name : Dism.exe

Length : 211968

DirectoryName : C:\Windows\softwaredistribution.bak\Download\367ea478b6d14d929c45a19dc20a53e5\x86_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.17031_none_f37c59e329204af6

Directory : C:\Windows\softwaredistribution.bak\Download\367ea478b6d14d929c45a19dc20a53e5\x86_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.17031_none_f37c59e329204af6

IsReadOnly : False

Exists : True

FullName : C:\Windows\softwaredistribution.bak\Download\367ea478b6d14d929c45a19dc20a53e5\x86_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.17031_none_f37c59e329204af6\Dism.exe

Extension : .exe

CreationTime : 26/05/2014 15:06:26

CreationTimeUtc : 26/05/2014 14:06:26

LastAccessTime : 26/05/2014 15:06:26

LastAccessTimeUtc : 26/05/2014 14:06:26

LastWriteTime : 22/02/2014 09:15:23

LastWriteTimeUtc : 22/02/2014 09:15:23

Attributes : Archive

PSPath : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\System32\Dism.exe

PSParentPath : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\System32

PSChildName : Dism.exe

PSDrive : C

PSProvider : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem

PSIsContainer : False

VersionInfo : File: C:\Windows\System32\Dism.exe

InternalName: dism

OriginalFilename: DISM.EXE.MUI

FileVersion: 6.3.9600.16384 (winblue_rtm.130821-1623)

FileDescription: Dism Image Servicing Utility

Product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System

ProductVersion: 6.3.9600.16384

Debug: False

Patched: False

PreRelease: False

PrivateBuild: False

SpecialBuild: False

Language: English (United States)

BaseName : Dism

Mode : -a---

Name : Dism.exe

Length : 188416

DirectoryName : C:\Windows\System32

Directory : C:\Windows\System32

IsReadOnly : False

Exists : True

FullName : C:\Windows\System32\Dism.exe

Extension : .exe

CreationTime : 22/08/2013 03:44:09

CreationTimeUtc : 22/08/2013 02:44:09

LastAccessTime : 22/08/2013 03:44:09

LastAccessTimeUtc : 22/08/2013 02:44:09

LastWriteTime : 22/08/2013 03:43:55

LastWriteTimeUtc : 22/08/2013 02:43:55

Attributes : Archive

PSPath : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Dism.exe

PSParentPath : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\SysWOW64

PSChildName : Dism.exe

PSDrive : C

PSProvider : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem

PSIsContainer : False

VersionInfo : File: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Dism.exe

InternalName: dism

OriginalFilename: DISM.EXE.MUI

FileVersion: 6.3.9600.16384 (winblue_rtm.130821-1623)

FileDescription: Dism Image Servicing Utility

Product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System

ProductVersion: 6.3.9600.16384

Debug: False

Patched: False

PreRelease: False

PrivateBuild: False

SpecialBuild: False

Language: English (United States)

BaseName : Dism

Mode : -a---

Name : Dism.exe

Length : 188416

DirectoryName : C:\Windows\SysWOW64

Directory : C:\Windows\SysWOW64

IsReadOnly : False

Exists : True

FullName : C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Dism.exe

Extension : .exe

CreationTime : 22/08/2013 03:44:09

CreationTimeUtc : 22/08/2013 02:44:09

LastAccessTime : 22/08/2013 03:44:09

LastAccessTimeUtc : 22/08/2013 02:44:09

LastWriteTime : 22/08/2013 03:43:55

LastWriteTimeUtc : 22/08/2013 02:43:55

Attributes : Archive

PSPath : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.16384_none_4f680322e1a371ba\Dism.exe

PSParentPath : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.16384_none_4f680322e1a371ba

PSChildName : Dism.exe

PSDrive : C

PSProvider : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem

PSIsContainer : False

VersionInfo : File: C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.16384_none_4f680322e1a371ba\Dism.exe

InternalName: dism

OriginalFilename: DISM.EXE

FileVersion: 6.3.9600.16384 (winblue_rtm.130821-1623)

FileDescription: Dism Image Servicing Utility

Product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System

ProductVersion: 6.3.9600.16384

Debug: False

Patched: False

PreRelease: False

PrivateBuild: False

SpecialBuild: False

Language: English (United States)

BaseName : Dism

Mode : -a---

Name : Dism.exe

Length : 245760

DirectoryName : C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.16384_none_4f680322e1a371ba

Directory : C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.16384_none_4f680322e1a371ba

IsReadOnly : False

Exists : True

FullName : C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.16384_none_4f680322e1a371ba\Dism.exe

Extension : .exe

CreationTime : 22/08/2013 10:48:32

CreationTimeUtc : 22/08/2013 09:48:32

LastAccessTime : 22/08/2013 10:48:32

LastAccessTimeUtc : 22/08/2013 09:48:32

LastWriteTime : 22/08/2013 10:48:19

LastWriteTimeUtc : 22/08/2013 09:48:19

Attributes : Archive

PSPath : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.17031_none_4f9af566e17dbc2c\Dism.exe

PSParentPath : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.17031_none_4f9af566e17dbc2c

PSChildName : Dism.exe

PSDrive : C

PSProvider : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem

PSIsContainer : False

VersionInfo : File: C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.17031_none_4f9af566e17dbc2c\Dism.exe

InternalName: dism

OriginalFilename: DISM.EXE

FileVersion: 6.3.9600.17031 (winblue_gdr.140221-1952)

FileDescription: Dism Image Servicing Utility

Product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System

ProductVersion: 6.3.9600.17031

Debug: False

Patched: False

PreRelease: False

PrivateBuild: False

SpecialBuild: False

Language: English (United States)

BaseName : Dism

Mode : -a---

Name : Dism.exe

Length : 275456

DirectoryName : C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.17031_none_4f9af566e17dbc2c

Directory : C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.17031_none_4f9af566e17dbc2c

IsReadOnly : False

Exists : True

FullName : C:\Windows\WinSxS\amd64_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.17031_none_4f9af566e17dbc2c\Dism.exe

Extension : .exe

CreationTime : 01/06/2014 20:12:59

CreationTimeUtc : 01/06/2014 19:12:59

LastAccessTime : 01/06/2014 20:12:59

LastAccessTimeUtc : 01/06/2014 19:12:59

LastWriteTime : 01/06/2014 20:12:59

LastWriteTimeUtc : 01/06/2014 19:12:59

Attributes : Archive

PSPath : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.16384_none_f349679f29460084\Dism.exe

PSParentPath : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.16384_none_f349679f29460084

PSChildName : Dism.exe

PSDrive : C

PSProvider : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem

PSIsContainer : False

VersionInfo : File: C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.16384_none_f349679f29460084\Dism.exe

InternalName: dism

OriginalFilename: DISM.EXE

FileVersion: 6.3.9600.16384 (winblue_rtm.130821-1623)

FileDescription: Dism Image Servicing Utility

Product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System

ProductVersion: 6.3.9600.16384

Debug: False

Patched: False

PreRelease: False

PrivateBuild: False

SpecialBuild: False

Language: English (United States)

BaseName : Dism

Mode : -a---

Name : Dism.exe

Length : 188416

DirectoryName : C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.16384_none_f349679f29460084

Directory : C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.16384_none_f349679f29460084

IsReadOnly : False

Exists : True

FullName : C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.16384_none_f349679f29460084\Dism.exe

Extension : .exe

CreationTime : 22/08/2013 03:44:09

CreationTimeUtc : 22/08/2013 02:44:09

LastAccessTime : 22/08/2013 03:44:09

LastAccessTimeUtc : 22/08/2013 02:44:09

LastWriteTime : 22/08/2013 03:43:55

LastWriteTimeUtc : 22/08/2013 02:43:55

Attributes : Archive

PSPath : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.17031_none_f37c59e329204af6\Dism.exe

PSParentPath : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem::C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.17031_none_f37c59e329204af6

PSChildName : Dism.exe

PSDrive : C

PSProvider : Microsoft.PowerShell.Core\FileSystem

PSIsContainer : False

VersionInfo : File: C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.17031_none_f37c59e329204af6\Dism.exe

InternalName: dism

OriginalFilename: DISM.EXE

FileVersion: 6.3.9600.17031 (winblue_gdr.140221-1952)

FileDescription: Dism Image Servicing Utility

Product: Microsoft® Windows® Operating System

ProductVersion: 6.3.9600.17031

Debug: False

Patched: False

PreRelease: False

PrivateBuild: False

SpecialBuild: False

Language: English (United States)

BaseName : Dism

Mode : -a---

Name : Dism.exe

Length : 211968

DirectoryName : C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.17031_none_f37c59e329204af6

Directory : C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.17031_none_f37c59e329204af6

IsReadOnly : False

Exists : True

FullName : C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_microsoft-windows-d..ervicing-management_31bf3856ad364e35_6.3.9600.17031_none_f37c59e329204af6\Dism.exe

Extension : .exe

CreationTime : 31/05/2014 00:35:20

CreationTimeUtc : 30/05/2014 23:35:20

LastAccessTime : 31/05/2014 00:35:20

LastAccessTimeUtc : 30/05/2014 23:35:20

LastWriteTime : 22/02/2014 09:15:23

LastWriteTimeUtc : 22/02/2014 09:15:23

Attributes : Archive

Doesn't mean much to me. I can't see dism.exe in winsxs, is it in a compressed file? How would I copy it to system32?
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Anonymous

2014-06-01T20:36:12+00:00

Hi Xircal

I tried all that. I downloaded all the win 8.1 update components from the MS site. But on running the updates several reported that they were not applicable! Others were reported as already installed, but on rebooting the update configuration failure was reported again.

Running the update trouble shooter diagnostic now gives me the following in output.txt from checksurlog.cab:

Proxy : Direct access (no proxy server).

Last Installed Update :Feature Pack for Windows (KB2937592),06/01/2014 19:37:02

Last Displayed Message :2014-06-01 21:24:27:732 1176 efc AU WARNING: Failed to get Network Cost info from NLM, assuming network is NOT metered, error = 0x800704C6

Language settings :en-US

bits : Stopped

wuauserv : Running

WORKGROUP :WORKGROUP

Windows Update Agent Version :7.9.9600.16384

Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro SP: 0

CPU Type : x64

OS Architecture :64-bit
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