“We couldn't complete the updates, undoing changes”

Apr 22, 2015 06:42 GMT  ·  By

This month's Patch Tuesday updates are causing quite a lot of issues for Windows users out there, but while we were searching the web looking for a fix, we came across another widespread problem that dates back to May 2014 and that is still being experienced by many of you these days.

Installation of several Windows updates fails with error code 800F0922 or, in many cases, with a message saying just “Error: We couldn’t complete the updates, Undoing changes. Don’t turn off your computer.”

Right now, there doesn't seem to be just one update affected by this problem, but several, and posts on a 64-page thread on the Microsoft Community forums point to KB2976978, KB3049508, KB3032323, KB3000850, and several others as being impacted.

What's more shocking is that, despite the fact that the issue was first reported nearly a year ago, Microsoft still hasn't provided a fix, so users turned to all kinds of workarounds to make sure they're running a fully patched version of Windows.

Happening only on Windows 8.1

The exact cause of the issue is really hard to be determined, but it appears that in some cases, the “undoing changes” error message prevents users from logging back into Windows, thus making their computers completely unusable.

In short, Windows users attempt to install the provided updates, but due to the unknown issue their computers are pushed into an infinite “undoing changes” process that seems to last forever. Many users have told us that it never stops undoing these changes so even if they manually shut down the computer from the physical button, the same message shows up every time and they cannot log into Windows.

Some suggested that booting into Safe Mode and restoring the computer to a previous state is the only option, but others said that not even this solution works every time.

Of course, some input for Microsoft on this would really be helpful, so we've contacted the company to figure out exactly what happens with all these updates and whether there's a way to fix them or not.