Redmond says it’s still working on a full fix

Feb 26, 2016 13:49 GMT  ·  By

KB3119142 is an update released by Microsoft in January 2016 as part of that month’s Patch Tuesday cycle, but as we’ve already told you, some PCs are experiencing a bug on Windows 10.

Specifically, KB3119142 successfully installs over and over again, with Control Panel showing multiple such installs of the very same update. When KB3119142 shows up via Windows Update for the first time, it is automatically installed with the rest of the recommended updates, and deployment goes just fine.

But after a reboot, the KB3119142 update is offered once again and again every single time the computer is restarted. What’s uncanny, however, is that the patch appears to install successfully every time.

In a post on the KB page, Microsoft acknowledges problems with this particular update and says that, on some PCs, it indeed installs successfully repeatedly.

“Microsoft is aware that some Windows 10 customers are receiving multiple offers of KB3119142 through Microsoft Update even though the update is marked as successfully installed. Microsoft is working to address this issue. In the meantime, we recommend that customers who are receiving multiple offers of KB3119142 try the following methods to work around this issue,” Redmond says.

How to fix the problem

Microsoft says that there are two different ways to install this update just once and never get it again, but they involve several steps and an administrator account.

The first one requires you to open Control Panel, click on Uninstall a program and look for Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Redistributable (X64) - 11.0.61030 or Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 Redistributable (X86) - 11.0.61030. Right-click this entry, and in the Modify Setup dialog, choose Repair.

The second method comes down to run the Modify Setup repair option by downloading the package here. After the download, launch the installer and hit the Repair button, and everything should be fixed.