How to avoid bad windows 11 updates that break things?

Today I had to use 3 hours to restore my computer from a backup because I could not get it to boot properly (just black screen) after win 11 update.
What is the best strategy to know when and when not to update?

jamesd1 said:

Today I had to use 3 hours to restore my computer from a backup because I could not get it to boot properly (just black screen) after win 11 update.
What is the best strategy to know when and when not to update?

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There really is no "best" strategy.

Some use the various Windows Update blockers, and wait to see what said update did to other people's comps.
Most use 3rd party backup software.

The best way to use that, is to keep the used space on your Windows drive... "small".
Say less than 60-100GB

Then backups and restores are so fast, that restoring and trying again aren't time consuming.

Welcome to ElevenForum.


Here's a list of some of the 3rd party software, for dealing with Windows Updates...

How to avoid bad windows 11 updates that break things?​

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The way to find out they are bad is to install them then complain to Microsoft using the Feedback Hub in the Start menu. Or wait a few days and visit forums to see if it's a bigger problem

Since there are near endless combinations of systems, devices and software it's impossible for any reasonable coverage of QA for updates. You can postpone an update for about a week and check the news. If there's a lot of chatter about an update breaking things that's your strategy. Most home users don't have the luxury of having a CAB process and pilot device groups to test update on to prevent failures.

Having a VM and updating it first may help a little, but to my first point the device configuration will be different and you may not run into the same issues

Updates are never 100% reliable.
Best strategy is (as you have done) is to make an image before he update. This way it should only take maybe 15-minutes to restore from the image. I suspect it took you 3-hours because you were restoring from an old backup and then needed to make manual changes to get up-to-date.

One way to reduce the risk is never to install 'Preview' type updates. Wait until about a week after each Patch Tuesday and only install the 'Stable' updates.

It is possible to pause updates for 1 week.

jamesd1 said:

Today I had to use 3 hours to restore my computer from a backup because I could not get it to boot properly (just black screen) after win 11 update.
What is the best strategy to know when and when not to update?

Click to expand...

Just my $0.02 worth...

History (summarized): back in 1994, I used to run RedHat Linux and Windows 95 dual boot. Windows 95 kept crashing so much that it caused problems with the dual-boot setup and my productivity of Windows. I got tired of always repairing/reloading/re-setups, etc. in Windows. VMware Workstation for Linux came out and I quickly learned to run Windows 95 in VMware Workstation. Makes managing Windows much easier (i.e. snapshots or make backup of virtual sessions).

Throughout the decades/years to date: I still run Linux and Windows dual-boot mostly as it has stabilized over the years. However, I still run Windows 10/11 in VirtualBox in Linux. This is mostly for testing purposes, but also keep Windows 10/11 running from all the system damaging updates from Microsoft. In VirtualBox you can easily restore Windows back with snapshots. Minimize downtime.

I know Linux is not for everyone, but lately running Windows through VirtualBox session in Linux is helpful. Not only does Windows run faster (YMMV), it is more manageable. I do not need to reinstall, repair, etc. Windows, just restore the previous snapshot in seconds or minutes. I know how to do these tasks if needed, I just don't want to do them for myself any longer. :)

I still dual-boot Linux and Windows 11 currently, until Microsoft breaks the dual-boot again. In Linux, repairing dual boot is somewhat easy compared to Windows cumbersome lacking utilities. I still need to run Windows because my career. Personal side, it is Linux still.

Like I alluded to earlier, some updates can't be avoided. I have a month-old Lenovo Notebook that came with Win11 Home and yesterday afternoon an update sneaked in and set the OS drive to Bitlocker. First issue I've had with updates since leaving the Insider program in Win10. Now I've ended up with an empty partition and need to find wireless driver to continue installing Win11 since it doesn't have the RJ45 port [shades of the old Netbooks]. Several posts, actually more than, show getting Bitlocker is now automatic with Version 24H2, seems to be unavoidable.

Berton said:

Several posts, actually more than, show getting Bitlocker is now automatic with Version 24H2, seems to be unavoidable.

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Use Rufus to create a bootable USB drive where Bitlocker is disabled.

Nipdawg said:

Use Rufus to create a bootable USB drive where Bitlocker is disabled.

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Plan to but first have to get a connection to finish setting up Win11, another of those things that are required now.

Berton said:

Plan to but first have to get a connection to finish setting up Win11, another of those things that are required now.

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You may benefit from Chris Titus MicroWin feature. You can eliminate all the garbage of 24H2 in the ISO (very clean no app install) with including system drivers needed for your system. Plus TPM2/Bitlocker are disabled. Just another option.

This is why I use Lazesoft Disk Image and Clone [free] software to backup my drives regularly because of Windows problems. Makes restore them easy. Hopefully this will help you eliminate rebuilding your system with searching for necessary drivers. I've been there many times before.

Update to my post: After having to tend to other things I finally fully cleaned my SSD, decided to get rid of any possible corruption from the encryption, I then installed Win11 from a USB Thumb drive I had made using the Microsoft MCT/Media Creation Tool on 10/3/24. When finished I ran the updates, now I have Version 24H2 Build 26100.2314. It seems to be working just fine.

Of these 2 updates, [KB5046683 KB5046617], the KB5046683 is not in the Microsoft Update Catalog, don't know the importance of that yet.

EDIT: I should mention the only thing I had to do first was download the Wireless drivers, extracted and put on a separate USB Thumb drive and pointed to that when prompted during the process to install drivers. The Notebook doesn't have an RJ45 port.

Marcus Vinicus said:

It is possible to pause updates for 1 week.

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Click on the arrow and you get a drop down menu where you can select up to 5 weeks.

James, there is no hard set rule. With all the possibily thousands of configurations , both in hardware as well as individual user tweaks and changes he's made the OS, as well as corruption in the OS before the update, windows update can be a crapshoot.

The majority of updates usually go smoothly for the majority of users. But one can never assume if he will fall into the majority or the minority category. So always be prepared with your images in case you get hit and fall into the latter category.

My rule of thumb is to never install preview updates. I let all the go-getters test them out first.
Update Tuesday is the second Tues. of the month. MS normally releases their updates at noon on that day. I have developed a routine that a day or two before every update Tuesday I use SFC to check for any corruption. I then make a full system image.

Though not normally, third party AV (including MWB) has caused WU problems for some people and has for me in the past. I think most of that issue has been worked out now and it's no longer necessary,but I still disable it just to eliminate it from causing a problem. If by that afternoon WU hasn't automatically downloaded the monthly cumulative or anything else, I will manually check for updates and keep my fingers crossed.