Windows 10 to "10.1" update FAILS... no message... no clue

I finally managed to get my laptop running on Windows 10. All was fine, running build 10240 (RTM, Threshold 1). But then the Windows Upgrade assistant informed me that I'm on an outdated version of Windows 10 and that I should update. Apparently it is pretty massive, an "anniversary update", so it's treated like an "upgrade" rather than a behind-the-scenes update.

Well... after 45 minutes of all this "progress" and work, the process simply FAILED. Windows was successful at "restoring the previous version." OK... but... after this, NO INDICATION of what went wrong. Launching the Windows Assistant for updating is all enthusiastic about helping me "update to the latest and most secure version of Windows 10"... with nary a clue that the previous attempt failed.

I'm AGHAST at how troublesome Microsoft has become with installs. This is the absolutely most terrible O/S upgrade experience I've ever had, going from 8.1 to 10 and now 10+. It's atrocious to see so many "hoops" that need to be leaped through without Microsoft taking the initiative to make this process an efficient and productive one. I cannot image how anyone who is a novice or with "general" Windows experience could manage this, without resorting to hundreds of dollars in support fees. It's a disaster on usability, and makes Apple seem like heaven.

Nevertheless... painful as it is, I'm on Windows 10 and would like to be "more secure" with the latest. Any clue as to what I can do to find out what choked Microsoft on this and how to get over it?

Going to Windows Events for "Setup" showed nothing, but "System" showed a plethora of DistributedCOM error messages. "The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM server application." Failure to register with DCOM. And other Service Control Manager errors... timeouts.

Apparently there is some deliberate "Microsoft Windows Update Troubleshooter" program available... that Microsoft doesn't proactively tell you about. You have to "discover" it and then download from their site... to then analyze your system. You figure they'd at least point you in that direction after an update failure. I ran this, which fixed some kind of "Service registration is missing or corrupt."

Now... wouldn't Microsoft Windows run some kind of diagnostic like this FIRST before attempting a lengthy update? As part of the "CHECKING TO SEE IF YOUR PC IS READY TO BE UPDATED," or some other such sensible action.... instead of wasting people's time.

Hopefully I'll be able to come back with an update that comes with a happy ending.

Third party, resident AV programs can interfere with upgrades.

jimbo45 said:

Hi there

Actually I've been rather pleasantly surprised with the ease of upgrading initially to W10 (to get the "Freebie") and then doing install from scratch.

Had almost zero problems - mainly minor glitches which were soon fixed either by updates from Ms or help from this great Forum.

I only have 2 outstanding issues

1) Networking just seems totally random -- sometimes it works seamlessly, other times a Single computer that seems 100% identical to another in the network just refuses to show up whatever you do - in extreme cases a total windows re-install is the only way I've got it to be fixed.

Windows Networking though has been its weak point ever since they started with networking - I believe they used an old DOS LAN system at first from the fledgling Novell corporation at that time (Windows 3 / 3/1 / 3.11 for workgroups).

2) The NTFS file system with the 240 char or so name restriction (that includes the directory or folder name).

I have loads of music folders with long directory names and even longer track names and I'm not renaming those - it would take days and is a bit of a pointless task since I'm serving those files up on a Linux home built NAS server to TV's / phones etc.

For the rest I'm quite happy - everything works including some quite unusual hardware - and running back level of Windows as VM's such as XP for really old legacy devices works just fine too.

So at least (apart from the 2 points I've mentioned) I'm a happy customer and don't subscribe to the "Evil Empire" theory that a lot do by saying Ms has become a totally useless and evil corporation.

Cheers
jimbo

Allegedly AU version allows long filenames now but you have to enable it - never tried it though.

How to enable NTFS Long Paths in Windows 10