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On the eve of Patch Tuesday, Microsoft confirms Windows 10 can automatically remove borked updates
Install. Uninstall. Boot. Repeat
Microsoft has quietly updated a support document to let us know that Windows 10 will have a crack at uninstalling borked updates – just in time for patch Tuesday.
Windows 10 endures enjoys a near constant stream of updates and patches to, as Microsoft put it, "keep your device secure and running at peak efficiency". This is all well and good, but as a significant section of customers would agree, things sometimes go wrong and a hasty uninstall is required.
Microsoft has therefore tweaked Windows 10 to spot a recovery from a failed startup (after all, a reboot after a patch seems de rigueur, even in 2019) and bring a hobnailed boot down on the offending update.
A cheery message saying "We removed some recently installed updates to recover your device from a startup failure" will be shown to the affected users as Windows 10 attempts to fix things by uninstalling recently installed updates.
The uninstallation only occurs when all other automated attempts at fixing things have failed.
To stop Windows Update trying to install what Microsoft has delicately described as "problematic" updates again, the borked patches are blocked for 30 days while engineers work on the issue. Then Windows 10 will have another go.
All editions of Windows 10 enjoy the automated de-borkage according to the support article.
We contacted Microsoft to check if this functionality would be able to deal with patches that didn't affect startup but still left the OS a sad place to be, such as the recent 1809 update that caused much upset among Destiny 2 players, or whether it could back out the likes of the whiffy firmware inflicted on some Surface Pro 4 owners over the past year, but we have yet to receive a response. ®