What Is Going On With Update 1803

Hi, you have Pro so do you have feature updates set to be deferred in group policy? Or did that period expire? 365 days max.

And do you have updates set to Notify - so you are advised of the update and download it via Settings when you want?

And if you remain desperate, there's this:
Stop Windows 10 Updates Properly and Completely

TexasBandit said:

For the third time, Microsoft has overridden my disabled settings for Windows Update and Background Intelligent Transfer in services and forced a download of 1803. And predictably it caused problems. After this update Windows would not even start. Thankfully, I have a system image and was able to recover my system to 1709. This latest failure was the 10th, that's right 10 times, that update has tried to install and failed. At this point, I am going to stay with 1709 16229.492 until the next major update. This is just a pitiful effort by Microsoft, as has been the case for some time. It's past time for Microsoft to clean up their software. Obviously, their "testing" with the Insider Program is not working.

Can understand your frustration, and the fix Dalchina posted would probably do the trick....

But.... if Windows would not even start, nothing, nada, after the update....there may be some other underlying issues. I can't see them going away when 1809 (Next Fall release) comes out in Oct.

I believe everything you said. Just pointing this out.

I keep getting "Pending Install" on every Defender update..

every Defender update..

- a consequence of having updates set to Notify. I've added a scheduled check for Defender updates, so I ignore those.

Then, out of the blue, I get a notification that I need some updates. Low and behold, the update downloads

Odd. As you know, normally you have to click on the notification, then Settings opens.

I seem to recall I once had notification of a pending build upgrade, trapped by Notify. I reset deferral, as the period had expired.

Don't forget Active Hours.

And if you have disk images, you can restore your system, although that's inconvenient.

You might care try a trial clean install of any new build you are considering either on a spare disk (swapped) or less conveniently by imaging yours then clean installing, then restoring the image. Not very tidy, but might help you identify problems.

In keeping with trial runs to identify an issues....

Nothing wrong with getting an ISO of 1709 and doing a repair install with it. Won't lose anything, with the exception of maybe some cosmetic tweaks.

Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade

WUMT should really help. I've found it to be a real life-saver, on many occasions.
Best of luck in getting things set up to your liking.
--Ed--