What is going on with Windows Update??

Folks,

I know there are a million questions being asked about Windows Update on this forum and I hate that my first post on here is about that but believe me when I say I have seen a lot of posts here with broadly similar suggestions on how to fix my specific issue and needless to say if any of them had worked, I wouldn't be here.

So let me being with the specific issue I'm having. Roughly 18 months ago, I upgraded my desktop to a new motherboard and CPU. This threw a curve to my existing dual boot Windows 10 / Ubuntu system where I had a boot partition running GRUB 2 to allow me to switch between the two with ease. Now I had to figure out how to get back into Windows with a UEFI partition which took me several days to resolve. In the end I managed to get to a point where Windows boots just fine, though I hardly use Ubuntu at all nowadays, mostly because I have to physically change the boot order in my BIOS (but also because I don't have much for it these days but that's beside the point). Now I'm starting with this as I don't know whether this will be relevant to my issue so I'd rather cover all my bases.

The above was in February 2023, as I changed my motherboard I also had to purchase a new Windows licence, not something I expected and probably not relevant but best mentioning it as well. Once Windows was all up and running again (the original partition essentially didn't change) Windows Update was running as expected for a short while. Then from March it started failing. Not completely failing mind, it's only ever been the "Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 22H2 for x64-based Systems" (with varying KB numbers month-on-month) which failed. Everything else always installs fine. I tried some of the solutions scattered around this forum but again nothing worked. Then in May 2023 it looked like it was working again so I assumed they were just faulty KB patches. Sadly from June 2023 and pretty much non-stop since then I haven't been able to apply a KB patch for the Cumulative Update and have Windows tell me I'm finally up to date.

A couple of months ago I even tried to use AI tools to point me in the right direction but given they likely learn from these forums, they were just telling me things I had already tried. I think likely the only thing I haven't tried is a full reinstall. There's apparently a repair tool you can use but it was giving me grief as well.

Now something even weirder has happened which I'm gonna try to illustrate with screenshots.

On Sunday it apparently successfully installed KB5040427 and KB5041019 as seen below:

(okay inserting images doesn't work for some reason so let me type it)

Quality Updates (50)

2024-07 Cumulative Update Preview for .NET Framework 3.5, 4.8 and 4.8.1 for Windows 10 Version 22H2 for x64 (KB5041355) Successfully installed on 05/08/2024

2024-07 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 22H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5040427)

Successfully installed on 04/08/2024

2024-07 Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 3.5, 4.8 and 4.8.1 for Windows 10 Version 22H2 for x64 (KB5041019) Successfully installed on 04/08/2024

That's what my last 3 entries in the Update History are.

However on the main Windows Update I see:

Your device is missing important security and quality fixes

2024-07 Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 3.5, 4.8 and 4.8.1 for Windows 10 Version 22H2 for x64 (KB5041019)

Status: Pending restart

2024-07 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 22H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5040427)

Status: Pending restart

So which one is it?

What will happen when updates like these are attempted to be applied is that it will run the update process after a restart and often the counter will go all the way to 100% but then at the last second it will say something along the lines of "could not apply updates, we're reverting back to the previous version, please wait". I've already restarted my PC twice trying to get those updates applied and essentially it's been doing that all the time for the best part of a year and a half. Only normally the Cumulative update for .NET does get applied, it's the Windows 10 one only that always fails.

Here's some specs on my desktop if that helps at all:

Device specifications

Device name Yukon

Processor 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-12900K 3.20 GHz

Installed RAM 32.0 GB (31.8 GB usable)

System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Pen and touch No pen or touch input is available for this display

Windows specifications

Edition Windows 10 Pro

Version 22H2

Installed on ‎05/‎01/‎2021

OS build 19045.2604

Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.4190.0

I'm not too sure what else to add, I tried the troubleshooter first but that doesn't see any issue at all. I tried the whole

• net stop wuauserv
• net stop cryptSvc
• net stop bits
• net stop msiserver
• ren C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old
• ren C:\Windows\System32\catroot2 Catroot2.old
• net start wuauserv
• net start cryptSvc
• net start bits
• net start msiserver

But to no avail, I tried some other potential solutions too, at least the less drastic ones but nothing seems to work and ideally I'd like to figure out a way to not have to reinstall everything but that might be impossible.

Anyway if anyone has a clue, please let me know. First thing is I'd like to understand how an update is and isn't installed at the same time. This is some Schrödinger's cat nonsense as far as I see it... Thanks in advance.