It’s happening again, so you might want to delay the install

Oct 12, 2016 04:39 GMT  ·  By

Microsoft rolled out Windows 10 cumulative update KB3194798 only a few hours ago, and just like it happens every single month, it fails to install on a number of computers without people knowing exactly why it happens.

First and foremost, some background. Windows 10 cumulative update KB3194798 is specifically aimed at systems running the Anniversary Update (version 1607) and brings a long series of improvements and bug fixes that improve general performance of the operating system.

There are no new features in this cumulative update, and this is the case of any other CU, as Microsoft is using them to refine performance and patch various security issues that it discovers before the Patch Tuesday rollout.

Failing to install

Unfortunately, KB3194798 seems to be suffering from the same issues that impacted previous cumulative updates, so it fails to install with an error that only says “Failed to complete installing updates. Undoing changes.” The system is then rebooted, and users are brought back to the desktop before the update is offered once again, so the whole installing process that fails to complete is relaunched.

For the moment, there are only isolated reports, so it’s not clear if it’s a widespread issue or not, but Microsoft should clearly investigate all these claims given the fact that previous cumulative updates failed to install as well.

“I've tried to process this update a few times through Windows Update, but it fails each time, uninstalls, and puts things back where they were. I read somewhere that someone was having problems with a previous cumulative update and it turned out that an Nvidia registry entry was conflicting.  Might be something to that. Any help is appreciated,” one of the complaints posted on Microsoft’s Community forums reads.

No workaround is available right now, and Microsoft is yet to acknowledge the issues, but we’ll be keeping an eye out on reports to see if any possible fix is found.

UPDATE: Here are two possible workarounds to help you fix Windows 10 cumulative update KB3194798 installation issues.