Updating Windows10 from ancient version to latest

Hi folks,

so if you're offline with your computer for a couple years, you seem to have a serious problem updating Windows 10 to the latest version.

I didn't connect my main PC to internet regularly for over two years and any windows attempt of updating was thwarted by me, because I never had the time, moved around with that box and always had a company laptop. Just used the PC as storage for pictures. Now, I'm setting up a new workplace and want to connect that PC to internet and update Windows. It just doesn't do anything. Refuses to update. Tried to download a later version but failed with that:
Feature update to Windows 10, version 1903 (2)
Last failed install attempt on ‎30-‎Jan-‎21 - 0x80240034

My PC is on version 1803. Latest release is 2004, right?

So is there an easy way of installing all cumulative updates since 1803 all the way to the latest version? If not, how do I install all the single steps and what do I have to watch out for?

Got some problems with Win10-1803, but I'll revisit that as soon as I've updated and only if these problems persist.

Didn't find anything on the forums. Either hundreds of unrelated threads or no result.

Hope someone has an easy way to cumulatively update.

Dagamba.

Hello dagamba and welcome to TF ,
Make this step #1: Backup and Restore with Macrium Reflect - it's free insurance to get your PC working again in case upgrade fails.

Step #2: Repair Install Windows 10 with an In-place Upgrade (I personally use and suggest you use 2004 before trying to upgrade to 20H2/2009 which came after 2004).

For step #2:
Get the 2004 ISO from here: TechBench by WZT (v4.1.1) - you can trust that site as the ISO comes from the M$ website and I've used it before myself as well as other people.

dagamba said:

So is there an easy way of installing all cumulative updates since 1803 all the way to the latest version?

There should be no need to do that. You should be able to skip direct to the latest version. I have previously upgraded direct from the original 2015 release of 1507 (build 10240) direct to the (then) current 1909 without a problem.

As steve108 says, first make a system image with Macrium, then perform an in-place upgrade using an ISO.

Samuria said:

We have a lot of people on old out of support windows who have found the upgrade wont work but doing a clean install works

Ouch! Hope M$$$ never forces me down that path.

EDIT: But, yes, sometimes I've read that's the only alternative. What bugs me (not the case here) is some people's knee jerk first recommendation is to do a clean install

Hi steve108 et. al.,

turned out I was just too impatient. Windows did install all updates (one by one, so at least 4 reboots) to the latest version after a day or two.

What I hadn't mentioned (cough, cough) is that at some point in time I had switched off updates because I didn't want the buzz on my sluggish network. I did switch them on again, shortly after, but since then, MS failed with Windows updates, be it because of some switch I was missing or because of the lame network I had to deal with.

BEFORE I wrote this post, I had already run that
sc config wuauserv start= auto
net start wuauserv
sc config bits start= auto
net start bits
sc config dosvc start= auto
net start dosvc
as admin, only when that didn't immediately come around with a visible reaction, I asked the forum.

Well, it worked all by itself. OK, I DID download Macrium and did a backup with that. Until I had finally come around to finish that, Windows offered updates all by itself. Maybe MS felt threatened?

Now, I'll sift through all the data and settings and see if I have to run a restore with Macrium. At least, with Macrium, I've got a PC insurance and a really nice backup tool.

Thanks for all your help!

Yours, Dagamba.

dagamba,
Awesome. Windoze can be a bit slow sometime as you just experienced Thank you for you update and please mark this thread as solved when you're happy to do so.

I just updated 3 old machines that weren’t offered updates. Use macrium to backup an image and use either upgrade asst of iso as noted above. Was a bit nervous but all installed just fine. Afterward one was booting slowly. Also found and fixed interiors errors with sfc / scannow.