Windows update fails to install 2021-07 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 21H1 for x64-based Systems (KB5004237)

I paused updates but my laptop still reboots overnight. It was 30 minutes from lid open to being able to read my first email message today.

When I look at Windows Update it says updates are paused. When I look at the update history it shows no failed updates despite the 10+ failed attempts to install the 2021-07 Cumulative Update that I personally witnessed. The last successful cumulative update was 2021-06. Windows Defender Signature updates are still installing successfully.

"Don't worry, we'll try and fail again tomorrow in spite of you 'pausing' us."

This does not happen for me. It stay paused. Something is messed up on your system.

I paused updates but my laptop still reboots overnight. It was 30 minutes from lid open to being able to read my first email message today.

When I look at Windows Update it says updates are paused. When I look at the update history it shows no failed updates despite the 10+ failed attempts to install the 2021-07 Cumulative Update that I personally witnessed. The last successful cumulative update was 2021-06. Windows Defender Signature updates are still installing successfully.

"Don't worry, we'll try and fail again tomorrow in spite of you 'pausing' us."

I've just paused updates for 7 days and see if MS comes up with another cumulative update that will absorb that cumulative update haha.

So typical of MS of having this problems. And I've just came back to windows after 10 years on Mac just because I need Windows for the course I am studying and here it goes, the reason I had left MS and have never had any issues with OSX for 10 years!

Thank you for all the effort you've put in, and everybody has, on this thread.

Misery does enjoy company, and I'm in a similar boat to everybody here, with the same update error message, failure of all traditional troubleshooting methods after almost 2 weeks of posting in various support groups with no luck. However, instead of my laptop (ASUS gl732lws) being bricked because of the update trying to automatically force itself and thus using all resources, I had a bunch of drivers and other Windows functionalities simply fail, partially bricking my computer with no function keys, troubleshooting programs that work, or audio of ANY kind. Is anybody else having this specific subset of issues? It seems to all be from the same cause of this update failing to install. I even tried just reinstalling the audio drivers so my computer could function on a basic level but nothing.

I truly don't understand this from a consumer perspective; I'm not technologically ignorant by any means, since I use this laptop for a good portion of the day, and then it just....breaks. Without audio, my laptop is basically at 10% function for my uses, only used at this point for forums and posting while I try to use a tablet for everything. It's very frustrating, and I have no clue where else to go for help for this problem.

Thanks, MichelMoacanin.

This particular laptop is an off-the-shelf-from-Costco Dell Inspiron 5570 with the 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8550U Processor1.8GHz running Windows 10 Home 64-bit.

I brought it home, took it out of the box, booted it up, installed Office Pro 2016 standalone edition, installed the Firefox browser... and that's it.

Over the past 3 years I have installed updates as instructed by either Dell, Microsoft, or Firefox.

I use the computer about 1 hour per day to check email via Outlook 2016 (standalone edition) and to browse the web.

It has worked perfectly up until about 2 weeks ago when, following a series of Windows updates, I began to have a number of problems. Now, every day when I start the laptop in the morning it takes anywhere from 30 minutes to 90 minutes (today) before I can even read my first email message. It is so busy attempting and failing to install this one particular update (2021-07 Cumulative Update) that it has effectively turned the computer into a brick.

I have no idea what ISO image you or Microsoft think I have access to. If the image isn't readily found on the laptop then I have no idea where I would find it.

The very notion of having to use a Disk Imaging program to un-cluster the mess that Windows Update created is a complete fail for a consumer-level product. Would you expect your mother or grandmother to use DISM.EXE to fix her computer? I don't think so.

I have no idea what Microsoft's current support offerings are. Apparently this website which is hosted on a domain owned by Microsoft has nothing to do with Microsoft which is almost as absurd as expecting Grandma to DISM her laptop computer.

Let's go over this engineering excellence once more:

Windows Update fails to install the 2021-07 Cumulative Update because:

"Some update files are missing or have problems. We'll try to download the update again later. Error code: (0x80073712) some files are missing or there is a problem with them. We will try again later."

There is no indication of which files are the problem. What is going to happen between now and... tomorrow.... that will magically make the files appear or become corrected so the "try again later" will suddenly work?

So, every single day Windows Update attempts and fails to install this update. When Windows Update runs, it so badly hogs the CPU and hard disk that nothing else can be done with the computer. It grinds for an hour and accomplishes nothing and then declares it will repeat the process tomorrow.

So, let's look at the Windows Update log file to see if there is any useful information. When you look in the text-based log file you are told that Windows Update now uses Windows Event Tracking and you will need to open a PowerShell and run a conversion on the logfiles so that they are human-readable again. Absurd. Not helpful. Not the sort of thing you expect from a CONSUMER-LEVEL product.

And you come here to this Microsoft hosted forum where you get a bunch of unpaid people throwing out suggestions like throwing darts at a dartboard while blindfolded.

Use this DISM.EXE Disk Imaging program that is intended for use by IT personnel for mass distribution of Windows on corporate networks.

It's a disgrace. Truly a disgrace.

Shame on you, Microsoft. Shame on you.