Help with updates 1903 & 1909 - major issues

Matthew Wai said:

If Windows Update is so fast, turn off your Wi-Fi first. I don't know how fast it can be.

I don't know how fast WU is... I am just trying to avoid more problems mostly because I don't know where it was in the download/install process for 1909 at the date I will be restoring it too.... better safe than sorry !! ;-)

Just waiting on an email and I will attempt the restore right after... will be back after to let you know how it turned out.
Thanks

- - - Updated - - -

Update:

After working on Avast (Premium and Cleanup) by doing a few scans , clean-ups & fixes it is working fine again (no errors and faster at start-up) and I did a few restarts (some prompted and some "just to see" - about 5-6 in total)....
I can now say that my computer is back to "normal"

I didn't see the need to do a system restore (and risk bringing back one of the issues I had just fixed or from few days ago) ... so I proceeded with the install of Macrium in order to do a system image of my system as it is now...

For those of you that know Macrium.... I have a question....
Do I select all drives for the image or only C: ?? (see picture)

(I did watch videos but they only say "select the drive you want to backup/image") ... I just want to be sure I select the right things (I only know what #4 & #6 are, no clue as to 1-2-3 & 5.....) and therefore don't know if they are important to include or exclude from the system image.

I saw the "create an image of partitions required to backup windows" in the Tasks.... should I just use that ???

Thanks again,
Z.

Zorbitron said:

For those of you that know Macrium.... I have a question....
Do I select all drives for the image or only C: ??
... I saw the "create an image of partitions required to backup windows" in the Tasks.... should I just use that ???

Yes. Click on that and it will automatically select all the partitions required to back up and restore a fully working Windows system. It will not select partitions that play no part in the operation or booting of Windows, so the RECOVERY (D:) (a factory reset partition typically found on W7/W8 HP machines) is unlikely to be included. I would expect all the other partitions will be needed and will be backed up.

You are of course free to add the D: drive to the partitions that will be backed up, if you wish.

Bree said:

Yes. Click on that and it will automatically select all the partitions required to back up and restore a fully working Windows system. It will not select partitions that play no part in the operation or booting of Windows, so the RECOVERY (D:) (a factory reset partition typically found on W7/W8 HP machines) is unlikely to be included. I would expect all the other partitions will be needed and will be backed up.

You are of course free to add the D: drive to the partitions that will be backed up, if you wish.

Thank you... will do that !!

Will probably only do it tomorrow morning as my laptop is my only source of entertainment and I am pretty sure it will take quite a while to do ;-)

Help (again!!) please....

I noticed that my computer was extremely slow today..... I decided to check the status of Windows Update and here is what I saw (see pictures)....

Actually when I first opened it it was at "downloading 0%" for both... (pic 1) and it froze (Windows Update window, link to advanced, history, etc didn't work) !!????
So I redid the Command Prompt (as admin) - sc config "wuauserv" start=disabled (see pic2 = result)

But what could have turned it "off" or re-enabled it ??? (Note that I did NOT do a system restore as I thought my issues were resolved......)

What do you suggest I do now ?? (restore to March 23rd before 1st issue OR is there a way to turn off WU for good so I dont have this issue again).

Thanks

Zorbitron said:

What do you suggest I do now ??

Click here to download "Matthew's preference.zip". Run "Disable hijackers.cmd".

well this is getting weirder & weirder......

I restarted my computer and went to check on WU.... here is the first thing I saw... (pic 1).. then within a second or two it changed to pic 2..... wtf ?????
(I did check the restart option from start menu and it does not have the mention "Restart & update".... even weirder...)

Please help... ;-)



- - - Updated - - -

Matthew Wai said:

Click here to download "Matthew's preference.zip". Run "Disable hijackers.cmd".

Done... thanks

Enough for today... closing internet and calling it a day... time for a movie n chill (not online... lol)
Will check on this further tomorrow morning and will let you know if there are any other issues. Thanks again.

Zorbitron said:

Done... thanks

Have you run "Metered or unmetered.cmd" too?

Matthew Wai said:

Have you run "Metered or unmetered.cmd" too?

I only ran the first one you gave me ... should I also run the one you mention (Metered or unmetered.cmd) ??
Anything else?

Should I go back to the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download folder and delete the content like last time ??
BTW the very large folder (9.1gb) named "5a0d764ececef0c950f0fa8b4c0fc5d2" is back .... dated March 29 12:29pm
How is it that it $%?&&?%$# downloaded it again even if I had done the PowerShell (admin) command ???

Thanks

Zorbitron said:

should I also run the one you mention (Metered or unmetered.cmd) ??

Yes, you should run it and select "2" (metered connection).

Zorbitron said:

I only ran the first one you gave me

The first one should have asked you to set connections as metered.

Matthew Wai said:

Yes, you should run it and select "2" (metered connection).

The first one should have asked you to run "Metered or unmetered.cmd".

No it did not.. but that might be my fault.... should I extract the zip files to a folder before attempting to open the disable hijacker ?? (I opened it directly from the zip file by double clic.. a window opened and closed in 1 sec... didn't have time to see anything....

PS... did you see I edited my previous message ? Thanks