Windows Update disaster!

I have spent many, many hours over the past few days setting up Windows 11. Some individual programmes took me two or three hours to get working, with the help of the developers in more than one case, to sort out various issues (which I didn't have in Windows 10). And then, this afternoon, I let Windows Update run: back at the desktop I am horrified to see that everything's pretty much back to where I started three days ago - Windows seems to have restored the O/S back to its default. Many of my created desktop icons are still there (others not), but their associated applications don't run, as I see their .exe files have been removed from their folders in Program Files, which I had installed over the past few days. And they all worked fine an hour ago.

Needless to say, I am feeling pretty angry, and pretty miserable. I am going to have to go back to Windows 10 (it's a dual boot PC, so that's easily done), and will be sticking with it (the PC is primmarily for X-Plane flight-simming). I am certainly not spending another three days, or more, setting things up from scratch all over again (only to have the same thing happen in a few days time when updates install, in all likelihood).

Is there any way I can get back to how things were? Uninstalling updates is not going to bring back my desktop and applications, is it? System Restore isn't what I am used to to be honest - the option I am presented wih is to go back 'to the previous build'. (It is now Win11 2H2 - I thought that that is what it was before too?). What happens if I run that, do you imagine? Again, it seems highly unlikely all my customisations and application executable files will return.

Just a shot in the dark here - maybe there's a way to get back to how things were that I am unaware of? But I am not expecting it.

Thanks

Hi @martinlest,
Sorry about your situation but I am glad to see you are an X-plane aficionado.

You give us very little info about your system.
I am especially interested in your dual boot setup which could be the source of all your woes.
As far as choices, your only one is a Restore Point, since you do not mention any means of backups.
And no, there is no 'undocumented' way to get back how things were. Sorry.

Please clarify a few things.
Did you upgrade from 10 to 11, clean install 11, or is this a new system that came with 11? If it's a clean install, is this the release build of 11 or are you running an insider build?
Windows 11 worked fine until you checked for and applied Windows update. Right? Which update applied that broke it?

Before doing anything I suggest you backup ALL personal data unless that data is safe in your dual boot system.

Regarding going back to previous build:
At the root of your C drive you should see a window.old folder. Open it and check if your programs and their executables are there. Also check your user folder in windows.old to see if your desktop is intact.
If everything exists in the windows.old folder, going back to previous build should restore all that.

Look at the date the window.old was created. If it coincides with the date & time of the update, it should take you back to the build of 11 before the update. However, if the date of windows.old is earlier, it would indicate to me you upgraded 10 to 11 so reverting would take you back to 10.

If you do revert back to 11 successfully, immediately go to settings>windows update and pause updates. Otherwise the update will reapply.

Please report back.

Thanks for the replies. I will get back to you on the various points, but just booting the PC, I see that whatever happened has really screwed up my dual-boot (via EasyBCD) too: in addition to Windows 10 and Windows 11, I now have three UEFI options, a 'Hard Drive' option, a CD/DVD drive option (there isn't even a CD/DVD drive in the PC).. I know I have sorted that out before, but I don't recall what I need to do. I'll figure it. What on earth did that %$#@ update do???

martinlest said:

Thanks for the replies. I will get back to you on the various points, but just booting the PC, I see that whatever happened has really screwed up my dual-boot (via EasyBCD) too: in addition to Windows 10 and Windows 11, I now have three UEFI options, a 'Hard Drive' option, a CD/DVD drive option (there isn't even a CD/DVD drive in the PC).. I know I have sorted that out before, but I don't recall what I need to do. I'll figure it. What on earth did that %$#@ update do???

Click to expand...

The update had nothing to do with it.
The procedure of creating a dual boot system was erroneously executed, as far as partition choice was concerned.
When it came time to reboot, your system did its best to make sense of the mess.
This is where you are right now.

Please read this:
I also do not see support for Win11

The update had nothing to do with it.

Click to expand...

Well, perhaps not, strictly speaking. Only that, before the Windows Update, my boot menu was fine. The update is at least indirectly reponsible.

Anyway, between my previous post and yours, I got rid of the UEFI devices in the boot menu easily enough with a 'delete' cmd input.. so back to the main point... (Yes, I am an X-Plane 'nut' really - fly in VR (Oculus) every day, pretty much )

My dual boot was set up (by me) many years ago, and has almost always worked perfectly. I have no idea why this update went so 'wrong' this time - it's hardly the first time I have run Windows updates in Win11. I do take a Macrium image every now and again, but don't have one of the Windows 11 installation; as I say, I have only been setting it up for X-Plane for a few days. I would probably have made an image when I had done (which, ironically, I very nearly had).

Yes, the PC used to dual boot Windows 7/Windows 10. I then upgraded Windows 7 to Win10, so two Win10 O/Ss. Then a few months back, I accepted the 'offer' from Microsoft to move one Win10 installation (the old Win7 one) to Win11. It went fine.

Windows 11 worked fine until you checked for and applied Windows update. Right? Which update applied that broke it?

Click to expand...

Yes, I had everything just about set up as I needed it. The update that broke everything was that to 'Windows 11 22H2'. It's in 'Featured Updates' at the top of Update History. No KB number is given. It took a long time to install, rebooting a few times: I had bad feelings about it after a while. Cumulative updates don't behave like this.

At the root of your C drive you should see a window.old folder

Click to expand...

Indeed there is, and it was created at the same time more or less as the update ran today; but it only contains Microsoft default programmes and folders. None of the third-party folders are there. Not a huge deal, I could easily add them again. But what took a long time was tweaking things so that I could add folder shortcuts to the taskbar, as I have been able to in every O/S until Windows 11 (why on earth did MS remove that possibility?). It's a deal-breaker for me not to be able to have 'Quick Launch' type folders on the taskbar. It was all set up rather elegantly, though I say it myself. But the update removed the whole lot. There are a few old icons in the Users folder, but that's all. Not being a Win11 native feature, the taskbar folders have all gone of course, (other cumulative updates before today have not touched these addons).

I don't think I am going to risk going back to the previous build - it is pretty clear that the third-party stuff I need will not re-appear. For X-Plane (and this PC is used for little else) I will go back to Windows 10. I tried Windows 11 on this PC and was 'burned'.

Thanks.

martinlest said:

I will go back to Windows 10.

Click to expand...

From what you have said, I believe to do this you will have to clean install 10. You are not the only one this has happened to. This poster indicates basically the same thing just yesterday. Lost all my apps after updates kb5030310 and kb4023057

From what you have said, I believe to do this you will have to clean install 10

Click to expand...

11, you mean? Windows 10 is OK.

System Restore isn't what I am used to

Click to expand...

Have you got a shadow copy dated before you did the update ?

have a look with shadowcopyview

I dont know if they are still there after a "feature update".

martinlest said:

I will go back to Windows 10. I tried Windows 11 on this PC and was 'burned'.

Click to expand...

I was going by this statement. I thought this meant you wanted to go back to 10.

You can see if a restore point before the update is available. To access system restore, scroll down to Restore your computer from a Restore Point
in this article. It shows screenshots.