[SOLVED] Latest windows update messed up my pc.

[alexswede]

My PC decided to crash while playing Destiny 2, so i restarted it. It worked fine after that but i decided to run the latest windows update since i hadn't gotten around to it and so this problem might not happen again. I pressed update and restart and the messages displayed kept repeating themselves, so i waited about an hour and it was still happening. So, i was stupid as i was, i restarted my pc mid installation. It seemed fine, it booted up the install and found the files again, and got to about 48% on the update when it just booted up my start menu. I logged in and was met by a flashing black desktop, with a taskbar in the wrong place with my icons, which seemed to switch between the desktop and the start menu. Black and gray back and forth constantly, every second or so. I was able to boot into safe mode no problem, but wasnt able to access system restore. After coming back to a normal boot i got the error message "C:\WINDOWS\system32\config\systemprofile\Desktop is not accessible. Access is denied" followed by a black desktop and grey taskbar again sitting in the wrong spot with no shortcuts and i cant even press the start button Help!

 

[Grobe]

Ok, so something went horrible wrong under Windows update. I suggest you backup any important/personal files and then you reinstall Windows.

 

[alexswede]

Ok, so something went horrible wrong under Windows update. I suggest you backup any important/personal files and then you reinstall Windows.

Through a media installation tool? And will all my programs and files be deleted? (I'm thinking steam save files for example)

 

[Grobe]

Yes, othervise it would be a waste of time. Like I said, you take backup of everything important. Many programs have a profile folder that you also can backup.

 

[vistagamer6969]

You can try the "repair" option when booting from a windows 10 usb drive.

 

[Ketchup79]

Good backstory. Just keep in mind that you may run into the same issue that caused your issue in the first place. As I read your post, I started to wonder if your video card was having issues, but only way to know for sure it to try a re-install first.

 

[Colif]

if you haven't done anything yet, you could try to save some files on C by doing this -

On another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB

boot from installer
on screen after languages, choose repair this pc, not install.
choose troubleshoot
choose advanced
choose command prompt
type notepad and press enter
in notepad, select file>open
Use file explorer to copy any files you need to save to USB or hdd

But generally, forcing a restart during an install is going to end badly.

Win 10 is pretty patient now, it won't force updates on you unless you ignore them for a long time... and I mean weeks. So Instead I check every 2nd week of the month for updates as that is the most likely week they will show up and run them. I also have my active hours set to only 1 hour a day so it won't delay running them if I do want to. Its better to be pro active with the updates than to be forced to do it at a bad time.

 

[alexswede]

if you haven't done anything yet, you could try to save some files on C by doing this -

On another PC, download the Windows 10 media creation tool and use it to make a win 10 installer on USB

boot from installer
on screen after languages, choose repair this pc, not install.
choose troubleshoot
choose advanced
choose command prompt
type notepad and press enter
in notepad, select file>open
Use file explorer to copy any files you need to save to USB or hdd

But generally, forcing a restart during an install is going to end badly.

Win 10 is pretty patient now, it won't force updates on you unless you ignore them for a long time... and I mean weeks. So Instead I check every 2nd week of the month for updates as that is the most likely week they will show up and run them. I also have my active hours set to only 1 hour a day so it won't delay running them if I do want to. Its better to be pro active with the updates than to be forced to do it at a bad time.

I was able to get my game save files ( dont really have much else that's important to me and I was planning on cleaning out my hdd at a later date) onto an external hdd. Should I still use this method?

 

[Colif]

it only really handy if you wanted to save the info that remains, at all.

if you clean install win 10 to fix your current problem it will include wiping entire drive.

So if you want to copy onto the external hdd, you should do it before you lose it all

How to clean install - follow this guide: https://forums.tomshardware.com/faq/how-to-do-a-clean-installation-of-windows-10.3170366/

 

[alexswede]

Thanks for all the answers! The clean reinstall did the trick, its up and running again!