Interesting Issues Getting Dev Channel to Build 1005
Yesterday, October 13, MS let go of a somewhat rare minor update from 20231.1000 to 20231.1005. One of my test machines — ironically, the old 2012-vintage Lenovo X220 Tablet — was happy to go along for this ride. But the other test machine — the 2018-vintage Lenovo X380 Yoga — was not. In fact, Reliability Monitor shows 3 attempts to install the update (all reported as successful) as shown in the lead-in graphic for this story. But by checking the version number reported in Winver.exe (and Settings → System → About) I was able to ascertain that only after the third try did the OS build number change from 20231.1000 to 20231.1005. As you can see in the lead-in graphic, I numbered each of the three attempts in ascending chronological order (bottom item 1 occurred first, middle item 2 second and upper item 3 last).
Getting Past a “Stuck Update”
It was only when I returned to Windows Update after a reboot following the first two tries that WU informed me that “not all updates had been successfully applied.” I ran the Update Troubleshooter and it reported fixing a problem. Then, when I ran the update process again, KB4586238 finally ran all the way through to completion.
I’m glad the Update Troubleshooter was able to fix whatever it was that prevented the first two attempts from working as they should have. Had the Troubleshooter failed to produce the desired result, my next step would have been to run Shawn Brink’s incredibly useful Reset/Reregister Windows Update Component batch file (see his Reset Windows Update in Windows 10 tutorial for a link to that batch file and detailed instructions on how to run it correctly). In most cases (95% or better) when I’ve had any kind of lingering issue with WU, running this batch file has restored update access to normal. This one’s definitely worth grabbing and/or bookmarking!
Update Success and Update Failure
What really intrigues me about this whole experience is that Reliability Monitor somehow saw the first two demonstrably failed attempts to apply KB4586238 — as evidenced by no change to the Dev Channel Build number — as successful. At least that’s how I read the information that appears in the lead-in graphic. It says “Successful Windows Update” for each try. But only after running the Troubleshooter and making the third attempt did the minor build number finally increment from 1000 to 1005. That’s my measure of success. Now I need to figure out how to report this to the Feedback Hub!
Author: Ed Tittel
Ed Tittel is a 30-plus-year computer industry veteran. He’s a Princeton and multiple University of Texas graduate who’s worked in IT since 1981 when he started his first programming job. Over the past three decades he’s also worked as a manager, technical evangelist, consultant, trainer, and an expert witness. See his professional bio for all the details.