Aug 12, 2018 Whenever a new update is downloaded on your Windows 10 PC, the OS replaces the Restart and Shutdown button with “ Update and Restart “, and “ Update and Shut. Sep 05, 2017 Here’s the simplest method: make sure the desktop has focus by clicking any empty area of the desktop or pressing Windows+D on your keyboard. Then, press Alt+F4 to access the Shut Down Windows dialog box. To shut down without installing updates, select “Shut down” from the drop-down.
Whenever a new update is downloaded on your Windows 10 PC, the OS replaces the Restart and Shutdown button with “Update and Restart“, and “Update and Shut down“. This is probably the best practice so that the update is not missed. But at times users find that these buttons continue to display the same message even when you have performed those operations – ie either restarted or shut down your computer. This could happen if an update fails to install and so your PC continues to prompt you every time to Update and shutdown. So what can you in this case?
Update and Shutdown/Restart not working
1] Restart File Explorer
Restarting Windows File Explorer can fix a lot of things, especially when there is a problem with the user interface.
- Right click on an open spot on the right side of the Taskbar
- Click on Task Manager
- Scroll down to Windows Explorer
- Right, click on Windows Explorer.
- Click on Restart
In case you killed it, then you hit the Win+R and hit Enter after typing explorer.exe in it.
2] Run Windows Update Troubleshooter
Windows 10 has tons of auto-repair services built in which can fix small issues which used to get manually fixed. Here, you need to run the Windows Update troubleshooter to resolve this.
- Open Settings > Update and Security > Troubleshoot
- Click on Windows Update, and ‘Run the troubleshooter’
This will try detecting, and then fix common issues which can be resolved by Windows itself. It may take several minutes to complete the process, so be patient. In the end, if you have some update pending which wasn’t realized by the system earlier, it will apply the fix by restarting the Windows Update service.
3] Set the Power button to Shut down
Change what the power button does. Open ControlPanel > Power Options and select Choose what the power buttons do from the left side. Set the Power button setting When I press the power button option to Shut down.
This should shut down the computer will out installing the updates. Of course this is just a temporary measure.
4] Instantly Turn off without updating
If you want to turn off your PC without questions, type “shutdown -s -f -t 0” in the Run prompt, and hit Enter. Another thing you could try is press Ctrl+Alt+Del and choose Shutdown from the bottom right menu.
5] Run Windows Module Installer
The Windows Module Installer is a built-in Windows 10 service. It lets you fix the Windows updates which are stuck.
To use this, open a command prompt with admin privileges.
Type the following and hit Enter:
Once successfully executed, you should see [SC] ChangeServiceConfig SUCCESS display within the Command Prompt console.
Exit the command prompt, and check if the buttons are back to normal.
6] Enter Clean Boot State
In case any third party service is causing trouble for Windows Update, you can perform a clean boot. You will need to disable all third-party applications and services which start during Windows 10 Boot and let only Microsoft services to run. Once in Clean Boot State use the Update and shut down button.
7] Reset Windows Update
Lastly, you can try resetting the Windows Update client using this official tool. It will not roll back nor will delete any downloaded updates from the PC. Instead, it will:
- Configure the services and registry keys related to Windows Update for default settings.
- Clean up files related to Windows Update, in addition to BITS related data.
If this is not comfortable for you, you can always manually reset the Windows Update Components.
Related read: How to shutdown Windows 10 without installing any Updates.
TIP: Download this tool to quickly find & fix Windows errors automatically
Related Posts:
Active1 month ago
I'm curious if there is any technical or user experience design reason for this phenomenon I'm experiencing:Whenever I select 'Update and shut down', the machine will update for a while and then shut down, but when I start it up again, it will still spend time on updating. As far as I know, an 'Update and restart' will fully complete the update. So why is that not the case with 'Update and shut down'?
I clicked update and shut down last night, expecting Windows to be done with whatever it needs to do, and turned on the machine this morning to be greeted with an hour-long update process I did not expect.
I see no technical reason for this behavior, as Windows is perfectly capable of rebooting any number of times during an update (as it indeed did this morning).
As for user experience, consider this:What is the use case for shutting down versus turning on the PC?
- Why do I want to turn off my computer? Because I'm not planning on usingit for a good while. It now has all the time in the world to installupdates and reboot as necessary along the way, then shut down.
- Why do I want to turn on my computer? It is very likely that I want to turn it on because I actually want to use it, perhaps for work.
I'm sorry if this sounds a bit more like a rant than a question, but I'm genuinely curious about the reasons behind this behavior. Is there a technical reason? Does Microsoft simply think that this is the best way to go about updates? Is my preferred use case so unexpected / out of norm?
Is there a way to tell Windows to really install everything and then shut down?
parachutingturtleparachutingturtle
2 Answers
Windows 10 Skip Update And Shutdown
![Update and shutdown command Update and shutdown command](/uploads/1/2/6/0/126081545/170329867.jpg)
1.When windows updates, it first downloading files from whatever storage of MS there is.
2.Then it start to look thought packages your system already has and downloaded.
3.After this there is a dependency mechanism on what package need what actions to be performed:for example you have packages downloaded:
pack1
pack2
pack3
pack4
pack2
pack3
pack4
![Restart windows 10 without installing upda… Restart windows 10 without installing upda…](/uploads/1/2/6/0/126081545/663753207.png)
and already present packages:
pk0
pk1
pk2
pk3
...
pk0
pk1
pk2
pk3
...
The system during update can for example check that package 'pack2' needs reboot and be installed only after 'pack1' should be installed onto system, because of this it will need a complete system reboot.
That is the suggestion why after you shutdown your PC your downloaded updates are still 'Updating' (but they are Installing in fact)
And the option that goes from Microsoft about shutdown your PC for good after download of updates can be more universall, maybe you want to see the process with your own eyes and shut it down for this reason. I think more can be found here: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletins
for more detailed process on update i think it will be better to contact the support and mention the specific version of Windows you are using.
Is there a way to tell Windows to really install everything and then shut down?
Windows 10 Update Prevent Shutdown
I don't realy tried that, but scheduled reboot and then shutdown should help you in this. (Tasks Scheduler)
user1448914user1448914
Few observations
- When I have fast internet connection, 'update and shutdown' will take about 2 mins to finish installing at next start up
- When I dont have internet or I have slow internet, 'Update and shutdown' doesn't finish at next start up. It takes about 5 to 10 mins and then I see the homescreen with 'Failed to install update' notification
- Interrupting the update process (by holding power button) never caused any problem in Windows 10. Though I noticed booting issues on Windows 7 and 8. [Try at your own risk]
From these observations, I suspect windows downloads a part of update while installing or sends some data to MS before it finishes installing.
Update And Restart Windows 10
For me, its not a good use case. Many of my friends are also frustrated of this behaviour. There's no legal way to postpone or schedule updates. You can set idle time but its restricted to contigious 12 hrs.
If I wish to update, I would expect it to finish it asap instead of waiting for me to restart it next morning.
However the update process is risk free now as compared to previous versions.
Workarounds to postpone update
- Hibernate instead of shutdown
- Or set your internet connection as metered (this will prevent windows from downloading updates, not recommended)
- Use something like 360 Security to patch security updates and postpone non-security updates with hibernation
- In windows update settings, check 'Defer updates'. (though it never seem to work for me)
Why I am sharing this?
There was an instance when I left Windows for an update. Next morning I had a presentation. I turned on windows to start the presentation in front of a huge audience and guess what? 'Getting Ready...'
sziraquisziraqui
protected by Community♦Jul 27 '18 at 19:35
Thank you for your interest in this question. Because it has attracted low-quality or spam answers that had to be removed, posting an answer now requires 10 reputation on this site (the association bonus does not count).
Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?
Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?