Win update stalled at 99%

Welcome to tenforums.

Whilst occasionally for a few users and update can take 8+hours, that's long, as you know.

Equally, as I guess you know, you run the risk of borking your installation should it be part way though applying an update by shutting down abruptly.

That does seem your only option. Of course, if you have been using 3rd party disk imaging routinely and regularly as is endlessly recommended here (eg. Macrium reflect, Aomei Backupper etc- free version available, to large enough external storage) you would have the certainty of being able to restore your O/S to exactly as was when you created the image.

That's an important hint...(!).

There is a risk if you shut down. Your PC may be unbootable or behave erratically. Or you may be lucky.

Should your PC boot successfully and be stable, you should look into
- setting target feature update (tutorial available in the searchable Tutorials section - to stay on 22H2 and ensure no attempt to upgrade to '11. (A few users have reported unexpected upgrades- although this is meant to be opt-in).

Also ensure Active Hours is set appropriately, and you have set behaviour for update-related restarts appropriately (tutorials available).

update (without permission)

Note that the default for Windows Updates is that they occur automatically. This in my view is the worst option MS could have provided users.

Pro users have more control- e.g. can set updates to 'Notify' in Group Policy.

Otherwise you need to turn to other means and a free 3rd party tool for full manual control as a Home user. (Tutorial available).

Hello Gustavs, and welcome.

You can go ahead and restart the computer to see if it may finish the update or restart it.

If the above doesn't help, then you could try resetting Windows Update below.

Reset Windows Update in Windows 10