Cumulative Update Issues in Windows 10 & 11

slcidea · Dec 29, 2022

strggg said:
Yes, that's correct. Here is the steps I followed (credit to someone in that post):

0 – BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP. Don’t forget desktop files, browser favorites and logons and all your data files.
1 - You need elevated access (System level not just administration) to fix this.
As per @loanb92’s suggestion download Psexec or Psexec64 from SysInterals to accomplish this step.

PsTools - Sysinternals

2 - Enter CMD in the Windows search box. Select Run as Administrator in the search results box. This is required to run at the System level.
3 – Enter “psexec -s -i regedit.exe” in the command window
4 – Navigate to registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY\Policy\Secrets\NL$KM
5 – Select CurVal and right click the “Default” name in the right pane. Choose Delete
6 - Do the same for OldVal
7 – Reboot
8 – Run Windows Update and install the 22H2 update.
9 – Reboot and say a prayer to the update gods.
10 – Run Window’s Update again and see that you are up to date.

Thanks for the step by step. Wonder why MS hasn't incorporated this fix.

slcidea · Dec 29, 2022

strggg said:
Yes, that's correct. Here is the steps I followed (credit to someone in that post):

0 – BACKUP, BACKUP, BACKUP. Don’t forget desktop files, browser favorites and logons and all your data files.
1 - You need elevated access (System level not just administration) to fix this.
As per @loanb92’s suggestion download Psexec or Psexec64 from SysInterals to accomplish this step.

PsTools - Sysinternals

2 - Enter CMD in the Windows search box. Select Run as Administrator in the search results box. This is required to run at the System level.
3 – Enter “psexec -s -i regedit.exe” in the command window
4 – Navigate to registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY\Policy\Secrets\NL$KM
5 – Select CurVal and right click the “Default” name in the right pane. Choose Delete
6 - Do the same for OldVal
7 – Reboot
8 – Run Windows Update and install the 22H2 update.
9 – Reboot and say a prayer to the update gods.
10 – Run Window’s Update again and see that you are up to date.

Can't thank you enough my friend. The fix worked!!! The mystery of the failing update finally solved. Did you just stumble on this or was there something officially posted by MS? I really appreciate you letting me know, or I would still be waiting. I was checking the forum periodically to see if anyone had found a fix but your post was dead on. Thanks again!!!

strggg · Dec 29, 2022

I have been following that thread and posting for the last few months trying to get the attention of MS to fix it. Can't take any credit for the solution itself though! Glad to have helped :)

slcidea · Dec 29, 2022

strggg said:
I have been following that thread and posting for the last few months trying to get the attention of MS to fix it. Can't take any credit for the solution itself though! Glad to have helped :)

So who actually discovered the fix? I suspected something in the registry a while back after every attempt to update had failed for me. The only thing that had worked for me was when I didn't save any of the applications and only kept personal files. I had been playing with various images that I had kept and experimenting with different ideas but this is the only thing that finally worked. I guess this probably also applies to Win 10 machines that were failing the updates. Spread the word and may be open another thread with your step-by-step instructions so people see it.

strggg · Dec 29, 2022

info001 on the Microsoft forums found the fix. Indeed it also works on W10 since that is the platform I'm on. Here's a quote of his post:

As the Doctor would say, "I came the long way around".
I was not willing to follow OldAJAS advice and dump a working system.
After 4 months it was clear that MS does not fix the Problem (I also tried the latest Win11 Insider-Build).

Thank God the problem also exists in my VMware clone.
As all my Win10 Backups had the same Problem, I used an old Win7 pre-Win10-upgrade backup.
Upgraded it with the same DVD as my PC.
Applied all available Patches form my PCs Update History (some unimportant were not available in Microsoft Update Catalog).
After that I was able to exchange parts form the two installations.
As the two installations share the same base (SAM/Security) they are partially compatible.
After spending huge time with CBS (Component-Based Servicing) I was able to exclude the filesystem as the problem.
It had to be the registry.
I suspected the SOFTWARE part or the COMPONENTS part of the registry.
By exchanging registry files between the two installations, I was able to exclude both.
I started to test all registry files in %SYSTEMROOT%\System32\config.
Bingo - "SECURITY" caused the Problem.
Because both installations share the same base, there were only few differences between them.
The rest was trial and error.

I've spent a lot more time on this than I care to admit.

Did anyone have problems afterwards?
Maybe with logins to MS-Cloud Accounts (I don't use them).
The deleted Keys are used to decrypt cached Domain-Passwords (according to doctor google).
Does anyone have tried the solution for a domain-joined Win10 ?

slcidea · Dec 29, 2022

strggg said:
info001 on the Microsoft forums found the fix. Indeed it also works on W10 since that is the platform I'm on. Here's a quote of his post:

Oddly this problem only happens on some systems as my other machines upgraded fine. I was struggling with all the error log files in Panther directory because the number of errors were too many. Not to mention the wrong diagnostics that Windows kept reporting regarding possible driver issues with failing updates. You really have to be a developer to be able to troubleshoot this. Surprised that MS still doesn't have an update that resolves this problem automatically. This fix works for the update, but I am not sure if it breaks something else which is why we need an official fix from Microsoft. Hopefully they'll pick up on the thread on the MS Forum.