Recent update causing USB mouse/keyboards to stop working

Thank you for the info, Siv. Since it seems to take a computer guru to keep Windows 10 working, we plan to stick with Windows 7 and 8.1 (just wish I could go back to XP, which served me for fifteen years with no problems).

Thanks again,

Bill

Hi Siv,

Both my computer and my wife's were hit with no keyboard and no mouse. Mine is now back to Windows 8.1 and hers to Windows 7. I have not yet seen anything to suggest that the problem has been fixed, but you say there does seem to be a mitigating patch out that fixes the issue. Can you please  point me to a reference to that patch, or anything that says if and how Microsoft has fixed the issue.

Thank you,

Bill

Bill,

The answer is in this thread on page 2 in a post by Sumit Dhiman2 but I will add it here:

Info on the update that mitigates the KB4074588 problems with loss of keyboard and mouse

If you have a system that is running Windows 10 V1709 and you can apply the update mentioned in the above article it will undo the damage caused by the KB4074588 update. It is KB4090913 and the link to that update is below:

https://support.microsoft.com/help/4090913

It also talks you through removing the patch manually if you can't access your keyboard and mouse.

One other thing that appears to be emerging is that the issue may be caused by Antivirus software making the KB4074588 patch not complete properly.  When that happens it does remove the existing keyboard and mouse drivers in an early part of the Windows Update process and then when it should apply the new versions that come as part of the update, it fails and they never get installed.  I suspect that something that happens in that process appears to your anti-virus software as malicious and it blocks the update from installing the drivers, or something else in the update that occurs before they are applied and the net result is they never get installed and you are left with no keyboard and mouse.

I hope this helps you.

Siv

Hi Siv,

Both my computer and my wife's were hit with no keyboard and no mouse. Mine is now back to Windows 8.1 and hers to Windows 7. I have not yet seen anything to suggest that the problem has been fixed, but you say there does seem to be a mitigating patch out that fixes the issue. Can you please  point me to a reference to that patch, or anything that says if and how Microsoft has fixed the issue.

Thank you,

Bill

Hi Siv, that worked! (Partially). My mistake was, I didn't have a space between "/Remove-Package" and /PackageName:"

It only partially worked: DISM attempted to run, then told me it had failed to do the restore, but mysteriously my mouse and keyboard then worked. I was able to log on, but while update KB4091240 had disappeared, KB4074588 was still there and refused to be uninstalled (I tried via the control panel, then by downloading the update manager from Microsoft, then by running the code again). W10 also refused to do any new updates, and everything was glacially slow. At least I could run a (painfully slow) full backup. In desperation I finally reinstalled W10, which seems to have worked. (Fingers crossed). So ... only 14 days later, and countless hours of misery, I hope Microsoft's update present has been resolved.

Thanks to you and everyone who offered help - I really appreciate it, especially as the advice I was getting from Dell on the issue was plain wrong.

Emily

Emily,

I am really pleased you managed to get somewhere with it in the end. It's so frustrating when nothing seems to work.

There does seem to be a mitigating patch out now that fixes the issue so hopefully others won't have the pain we have all been through.

Siv