How to Fix Windows 8 Update Freezing Issue

How-to
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Windows 8 Update is Stuck at Updating. How Do I Fix This?

Many times the updates are downloaded but are scheduled to get installed automatically during Windows shutdown or startup. Sometimes Windows 8 might also require a reboot after the successful installation of all the downloaded updates.

However, there might be times when you find that Windows 8 freezes while updating. This freezing issue may arise due to an application that is pre-installed on the computer, or sometimes because of incompatible service that is running in the background. In either case, administrators can restore the system to an earlier restore point which takes the system back to the state where no incompatible services were running or inappropriate applications were installed. Once done, the download and installation process of the updates can be re-initiated.

How to Restore Windows 8 to Earlier Restore Point

In order to restore Windows 8 to an earlier restore point, the instructions given below must be followed:

  1. Log on to Windows 8 computer with the administrator account.
  2. Click the Desktop tile from the Start screen to go to the desktop screen.
  3. Once on the desktop screen, click File Explorer icon from the taskbar.
  4. On the opened Libraries window, right-click Computer from the left pane.
  5. From the context menu that appears, click Properties.
  6. On the System window, from the left pane, click System Protection.
  7. On the System Properties box, make sure that System Protection tab is selected.
  8. On the selected tab, click the System Restore button under System Restore section.
  9. On the displayed System Restore box, make sure that the Recommended Restore radio button is selected. Alternatively, Choose a different restore point radio button can also be selected to manually choose the restore point to which Windows 8 is to be restored.
  10. Click Next to continue.
  11. On the Confirm your restore point page, click Finish.
  12. On the displayed confirmation box, click Yes to restore the Windows 8 computer to an earlier restore point.

How to Initiate Windows Update

After Windows 8 is successfully restored to an earlier restore point, the instructions given below must be followed to initiate Windows update:

  1. Restart the computer.
  2. Log on to Windows 8 computer with the administrator account.
  3. Make sure that the computer is connected to an active Internet connection.
  4. Click the Desktop tile from the Start screen to go to the desktop window.
  5. Once on the desktop screen, hover mouse to the bottom right corner of the window.
  6. From the displayed options, click Settings.
  7. On the Settings pane, click Control Panel.
  8. On the opened Control Panel window, click System and Security.
  9. On the System and Security window, click Windows Update from the right pane.
  10. On the Windows Update window, click Check for Updates from the left pane to make the Windows 8 download and install the updates automatically.

The above content was adapted from our Tom's Hardware Tutorials Forum.

Follow Marcus Yam @MarcusYam. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
20 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Be0wulf22
    Restoring to an earlier point in time is not a fix for the update freezing in the first place.
    Reply
  • mavroxur
    I've found a permanent fix. Windows 7.
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    what is with all of the fix win8 articles coming out on Toms? Again, this is a WINDOWS ISSUE, not a Windows 8 issue.Also, if this happens on your system there is a far simpler solution; Press and hold the power button to force the system off, turn the system back on. During the boot process Windows (vista and later) will recognize that the install did not complete and will re-install the update during the boot process before any applications are loaded. Much simpler than fiddling about with restore points and other useless garbage that people typically don't know how to use properly in the first place. If it still cannot finish the install then it will simply uninstall the update, bringing you back where you started so that you can troubbleshoot the issue.
    Reply
  • Red_Sun
    I've found a permanent fix. Windows 7.
    Beat me too it.
    Reply
  • Also, if this happens on your system there is a far simpler solution; Press and hold the power button to force the system off, turn the system back on.
    It's generally not a good idea to power off a computer while it's updating.
    Reply
  • Soda-88
    'Cus Windows 7 never had these issues :DI for one had 0 issues in 2 years of using 8 apart from that mouse glitch they patched within a week with KB2908279.
    Reply
  • rwinches
    Isn't neat that it now takes 2 or 3 times the steps to do anything important in Win 8?

    Non-intuitive steps to boot.

    I find it absurd that experienced Win users need to use Google to find out how to do maintenance functions like getting a full system image.
    Reply
  • 12869824 said:
    Isn't neat that it now takes 2 or 3 times the steps to do anything important in Win 8?
    You no longer need to confirm when you move files to the trash in Windows 8 or when you want to merge the contents of two folders, that's 1/2 the amount of steps required compared to earlier versions of Windows.

    So... can we has examples plz?


    12869824 said:
    Non-intuitive steps to boot.
    Really? Because pressing the power button on your PC to boot it is non-intuitive?
    That's no different from what we were doing for the past 50 years.


    12869824 said:
    I find it absurd that experienced Win users need to use Google to find out how to do maintenance functions like getting a full system image.
    Yeah, because everybody knows how to do a full system image on any version of Windows prior to 8 without Google.

    Whatever it is you're smoking, I want some too ;)
    Reply
  • apache_lives
    THG stop the Windows 8 hating seriously
    Reply
  • jimmysmitty
    12869824 said:
    Isn't neat that it now takes 2 or 3 times the steps to do anything important in Win 8?

    Non-intuitive steps to boot.

    I find it absurd that experienced Win users need to use Google to find out how to do maintenance functions like getting a full system image.

    The problem is that these guides are written with a pretty low end way of doing things. For example, you can access all of the administrative tools by right clicking the Start Button in 8.1 or use Windows + X to get the same results. All the normal shortcuts work.

    This just seems to be made for the most basic of users, not true enthusiasts who can move around an OS with just a keyboard.

    12870138 said:
    THG stop the Windows 8 hating seriously

    It does kind of feel like it, especially when the articles are geared towards Windows 8 when in fact most every version of Windows has suffered from issues like this.
    Reply