Solved Windows Update gives error "Something didn't go a planned. No need to worry-undoing changes"

My Dell XPS 7100 desktop was recently upgraded to Windows 11 using the Rufus tool to overcome compatibility problems. (It is, after all, a fairly old machine). I did this to ensure that we could continue getting Windows security updates after Windows 10 ceased to be supported.
Now, when Windows Update tells me it is time to restart to apply updates, it invariably fails with the above message. It has done this a good few times.
On one occasion, it seemed to imply that it couldn't update because another update process was in operation at the same time. However, repeated attempts all produce the same message.
My concern is that the most recent upgrades that it is trying to install have similar tests for compatibility which will forever prevent updates being applied. Is this a genuine concern or could it be coincidence that something else is preventing the updates? After it rolls back the change, the update doesn't appear in the update history to say why it failed.
TIA
BR
(W11 23H2 (OS Build 22631.3007)

You could try running windows update troubleshooter.

To do that, go to Windows update and scroll down to 'get help'. Then choose the bottom option (run windows update troubleshooter).

Incidentally, I have a Dell Inspiron 7000 series laptop, which has no problems at all running Windows 11, in spite of Dell saying it isn't compatible. (MS doesn't agree).

John

BorderReiver said:

My Dell XPS 7100 desktop was recently upgraded to Windows 11 using the Rufus tool to overcome compatibility problems.....

My concern is that the most recent upgrades that it is trying to install have similar tests for compatibility which will forever prevent updates being applied. Is this a genuine concern or could it be coincidence that something else is preventing the updates?

Click to expand...

No, it's something else. Cumulative updates don't test for being a supported device. The only time compatibility is tested is when doing an in-place upgrade to a newer version of Windows. For that you'd need a workaround such as those provided by Rufus. I have both supported devices and unsupported ones running Windows 11, they all get the same cumulative updates.

Try running SFC /ScanNow in Terminal run as an administrator.
If it finds problems it cannot fix, run Dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
Restart then run the SFC command again.

Thanks Bree.
The first time that I ran SFC /ScanNow, it said "There is a system repair pending which requires reboot to complete. Restart Windows and run sfc again.".
On restarting, I thought that I had better select the option to apply updates and restart (assuming that it was related to the system repair) rather than just restarting. Bad move - that just took me back to square one and the (now) ubiquitous "Something didn't go a planned" message came up again.

I restarted the computer (twice) and managed to run SFC /ScanNow successfully.
I then tried to follow Senecio's suggestion in running the troubleshooter in an effort to see if it would tell me why it had failed. No, it simply ran Windows Update which downloaded and installed the offending updates and entered the whole sorry saga all over again.

Another subsequent run of SFC /ScanNow was successful.

A browse of the entries in Event Viewer did show and entry for WindowsUpdateClient:
- EventData

errorCode 0x800f0922
updateTitle 2024-02 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Version 23H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5034765)
updateGuid {2051cda9-869c-4747-a6ca-49673f19aa71}
updateRevisionNumber 1
serviceGuid {8b24b027-1dee-babb-9a95-3517dfb9c552}

A search for error code 0x800f0922 brings up a number of entries, included deleting hidden folders. Before I go down that road, are there any other courses of action that I should follow?

SOLVED! But not without issues trying to get there.
For the sake of anyone else that may suffer the same problem, I shall complete the post.
A search on the internet for error 0x800f0922 during Windows Update led to a Microsoft site that suggested uploading one's CBS log. That, I presume, should give the reason for the failure. When I looked at my CBS log, the timestamp did not go back as far as the Windows Update. So I repeated the update yet again. Same problem. What's the use of a log that then appears to get replaced when one signs in?
Another site (Winhelponline) listed a number of suggestions:
1) Ensure the App Readiness Service is set to Manual. A check showed mine already was.
2) The System Reserved Partition's free space is less than 15MB. I entered DISK Management and could not see any System Reserved Partition at all.
3) The EFI boot partition is missing or has a wrong identifier. As per 2, there was no sign of an EFI partition. As I had no clue whether I had a UEFI/GPT based system or not due to the lack of the System Reserved Partition to ascertain the properties, I didn't pursue this. (Quite apart from it being WAY above my limited knowledge base).
4) If the CBS log suggested the performance counter was corrupt, there was another workaround. However, without any information available on the CBS log, this was also meaningless.
The bottom of the article had a link to another one of its pages related to this error. This page, like some others I had seen, suggested deleting or renaming the hidden folder C:\$WinREAgent. I renamed it, downloaded the updates yet again and rebooted. Success!
I don't know how many times I had seen Windows Update fail and then back out the updates. I must have spent more time trying to sort it out than what I originally logged on to the computer to do in the first place.

This page, like some others I had seen, suggested deleting or renaming the hidden folder C:\$WinREAgent.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your post. Having the same problem as you did. Didn't get anything when running SFC /ScanNow or DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth. Regarding the C:\$WinREAgent file. Does it matter what it gets renamed to. What did you rename it to?

SOLVED - without any issues getting there!!!
I tried Border Reiver's solution except instead of deleting the folder, just moving C:\$WinREAgent to a folder on my desktop to save it in case of unexpected results (who's ever had unexpected results on a computer?...) and restarted. Then tried installing 22H2 and hallelujah, no "something didn't go as planned" messages. Got a sign in windows. Man, I really appreciate your post Border Reiver. Been fighting with this for almost a week! Thanks a bunch!

Pleased to have helped, AZhermit. As a member of this forum and one who is likely to be asking far more questions than answering them, I'm pleased to see that my reason for posting helped someone far quicker than I would ever had expected.

OMG, you just helped me solve this issue for one of my support clients! I've been doing all the sfc and dism stuff, as well as whatever troubleshooters I could run on her Win 11 PC but could not get past this "Failed to update, let's roll you back" loop. Moving/deleting the C:\$WinREAgent file did it! Why didn't I read this thread 6 hours ago!?!?

You folks might appreciate knowing that I talked to a friend's son today who works for Microsoft in a supervisory position of a large group of geek types. He said a lot of people are having problems with these two updates 22H2 & 23H2 not installing, and said he'd just wait until Microsoft fixed and announced it. So knowing the C:\$WinREAgent information to change the name or delete it altogether is especially great as a super easy fix. The son said the system would probably just put it back on there, but so far that hasn't happened today.

BorderReiver said:

SOLVED! ...
The bottom of the article had a link to another one of its pages related to this error. This page, like some others I had seen, suggested deleting or renaming the hidden folder C:\$WinREAgent. I renamed it, downloaded the updates yet again and rebooted. Success! ....
I don't know how many times I had seen Windows Update fail and then back out the updates. I must have spent more time trying to sort it out than what I originally logged on to the computer to do in the first place.

Click to expand...

Thanks BorderReiver for your simple tip about renaming the hidden folder on the C:drive.

I had that same hidden folder (C:\$WinREAgent) as well, dated 2024-01-11.
On that date a Win10 update was done to install the following updates BEFORE I upgraded my OS from Win10 to Win11 on my laptop:

2024-01 Mise à jour cumulative pour Windows 10 Version 22H2 pour les systèmes x64 (KB5034122)

2024-01 Mise à jour cumulative de .NET Framework 3.5, 4.8 et 4.8.1 Windows 10 Version 22H2 pour x64 (KB5034275)

2024-01 Mise à jour de sécurité pour Windows 10 Version 22H2 pour les systèmes x64 (KB5034441)

My WIN11 upgrade from WIN10 was done on 2024-01-23...a few days later.

Don't know what any of this can mean but renaming the hidden folder 'C:\$WinREAgent' to 'C:\$WinREAgent_renamedToSolveWin11UpdateIssue' solved the problem and allowed the following update to get installed:

2024-02 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Version 23H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5034765)

Thanks again...CHEERS!

PS...Also made sure that App Readiness Service was set to Manual. Mine was on automatic.

PS...Also made sure that App Readiness Service was set to Manual. Mine was on automatic.

Click to expand...

Well, thanks for that Everest101. I didn't know that existed (like many other things). Only, when I go to it in Windows11 I only have the choice of ON or OFF. I assume OFF only notifies you of updates available and doesn't download them until you tell it to. Is that right? I used to be able to do that in W10 in the update panel. No more in W11.

AZhermit said:

Well, thanks for that Everest101. I didn't know that existed (like many other things). Only, when I go to it in Windows11 I only have the choice of ON or OFF. I assume OFF only notifies you of updates available and doesn't download them until you tell it to. Is that right? I used to be able to do that in W10 in the update panel. No more in W11.

Click to expand...

On my Win11 installation, when I check the parameters of the 'App Readiness' service, I see only 3 possible setting: Automatic, Manual or Disabled.
See attached image for clarifications.



You can see this by accessing Win11 Computer Management / Services and Applications / Services, clicking on App Readiness application and choosing the startup type...select 'Manual' type.

Hope that helps....

Interesting that properties box looks different depending on whether you're logged with an admin account or local account with admin sign-in permission. The latter had the drop-down dimmed & only ON or OFF in the left column. (& my window was too small to see to the right enough to see the Startup column. Thanks

Delete the C:\$WinREAgent Folder and try again

I waited a while to reply after moving the $WinREAgent Folder to my desktop in case something went amuck. But it worked fine and it hasn't mysteriously reappeared as a Microsoft computer engineer suggest it might. Updates working fine since the move. Thanks to all. I think this one is solved as move or rename the file since Windows apparently looks for it in that root Windows folder only. I'll probably delete the desktop folder after a while.

BorderReiver said:

On one occasion, it seemed to imply that it couldn't update because another update process was in operation at the same time.

Click to expand...

That's likely the case, if you get code 0x80070643. I rarely get update failures for important updates now.

That was the meme of Windows 8x, 7 and Vista. Windows 7 notably, has a buggy update from the early-2010s, IIRC, where if I don't install one update at a time and reboot in between, Windows Update will fail with 0x80080005.

Earlier builds of Windows 10, had the infamous "Windows Update times out too soon and need to spam the "Retry" button" bug.

With that infamous earlier 10 Windows Update bug, it will say something like cannot check for updates or otherwise something stubborn.(Sometime before 1909 or 1903, IIRC)

Same issue here, my OS is win11 pro, desktop computer. I have been solving this issue for two weeks, searching every possible solutions.
I checked this thread, and will say deleting or renaming or moving the hidden folder from C drive doesn’t work at all. Because this folder will reappear once the update process starts. The “Something didn’t go as planned…” message is still there.
I have performed sfc/scannow, no issues were found.
These are the diagnoses I have done so far. Next move, I am gonna download the update, try to run it through the Safe Mode.
If you have any other suggestions, please let me know.
Thanks!

doomlee1216 said:

Same issue here, my OS is win11 pro, desktop computer. I have been solving this issue for two weeks, searching every possible solutions.
I checked this thread, and will say deleting or renaming or moving the hidden folder from C drive doesn’t work at all. Because this folder will reappear once the update process starts. The “Something didn’t go as planned…” message is still there.
I have performed sfc/scannow, no issues were found.
These are the diagnoses I have done so far. Next move, I am gonna download the update, try to run it through the Safe Mode.
If you have any other suggestions, please let me know.
Thanks!

Click to expand...

An In-Place Upgrade "compares" what is installed on the computer, with the Windows ISO image.
Then, it overwrites any corrupted Windows files, with clean copies from the ISO image.
This is how it "repairs" Windows while allowing you to keep your programs and personal files.

Here is the short version of the In-place upgrade tutorial...

DISABLE non-Microsoft:
a) antivirus software
b) firewall software
c) drive encryption software


Make a full OS backup with a program like Macrium Reflect or AOMEI Backupper Standard
Making a backup is optional, but always a smart move.
Macrium Reflect
AOMEI Backupper Standard (free)


Get the Windows 11 ISO (Option #2), and save it to your desktop...


Right click the ISO image and choose: MOUNT
Open File Explorer and you will see a new drive letter. It will "look" like a DVD optical drive.
Double click the new drive letter to open it.
Find setup.exe and double click it to start the in-place upgrade.

Choose the Keep personal files and apps option.

After it's all done... to UNmount the ISO image, right click the new drive letter and choose: EJECT.

The ONLY thing you will lose is some of your personalizations.
Your drivers, programs and data will be intact.

Good luck