I have a friend who gave me a Windows 8 laptop to look at. Nothing I do to it will make it take updates. I can’t even delete the software distribution folder. I’ve scanned it for malware. I’ve refreshed the image. Nothing works.
So I’m going to nuke and pave this little guy.
How in the world can mere mortals handle this?
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Ouch… That’s really bad.
As for how they’d handle it…. most likely take it back to bestbuy/office depot/etc and get it serviced, or just return it.
But yeah, not a good solution.
It was cheaper for them to buy a new laptop. I’m not kidding.
A lot of my clients & family have bought Macs for home use. Microsoft is trying to make Windows more Mac-like and is, in fact, making it more difficult to use. Don’t get me started!
🙂
Same here with Win8.1 a couple weeks ago. Nothing I did worked — it just fixed itself after a couple days.
Windows Updates, or Windows Store App Updates?
Microsoft has a FixIt for the former.
PC Reset (not Refresh) will fix both.
Sometimes malware will damage Windows before it’s scanned and cleaned though, and Windows Defender (Windows 8’s version of Security Essentials) will automatically remove malware, but it sometimes takes a few days before you get an update that will remove it, and by that time the damage is already done. Of course, that’s true of most anti-malware software now. Did you check the AV quarantine/cleanup logs?
Also, this scenario makes for a good argue point for Windows RT. No .Net. Just throwing that out there.
before 8.1 update I was able to search for devices and printers by just typing in printe – now have to get there via control panel 🙁