One-Time Preventative Steps
Let’s start with some tasks you only need to do once:
Just Before Installing Updates
Now that your automatic update settings are changed, and you’re pretty sure System Restore should be in working order if you need it later, you can perform these pre-update checks: There are lots of ways to back up data, from manually copying your saved documents, music, videos, etc. to a disc or a flash drive, all the way up to setting up an instantaneous backup with an online backup service. Another option is to use a free local backup tool. Regardless of how you do it, do it. If your only way out of a post-Patch-Tuesday system crash is a full clean install of Windows, you’ll be happy that your valuable information is safe. With Windows Update configured this way, important security and other updates are still downloaded, but they won’t be installed unless you explicitly tell Windows to install them. This is a one-time change, so if you’ve done this before, great. If not, do it now. Specifically, System Restore, which is the primary recovery process if a Windows update causes a major problem, can’t create restore points if there isn’t enough free space on your hard drive.
Install Updates One at a Time
Now that you’ve properly configured your computer and prepared for the updates, it’s time to get to the actual installation procedure. Along these same lines, avoid applying Windows updates during thunderstorms, hurricanes, and other situations that could lead to a sudden loss of power. If your battery drains during the update process or your computer loses power, there’s a significant chance that it will corrupt the files being updated. Important files that get corrupted often lead to the very thing you’re trying to prevent here—a complete system crash. On some computers, when Windows restarts after Patch Tuesday security updates are applied, it’s the first time the computer has been restarted in a month or more. Many issues first appear after a restart, like problems caused by some types of malware, certain hardware problems, etc. If your computer doesn’t start properly, see our article How to Troubleshoot a Computer That Won’t Turn On for help. Had you not restarted and found this problem now, you would have been trying to solve the issue as a Windows Update/Patch Tuesday problem instead of the completely unrelated issue that it really is. If you’d really like to be prepared, you could even try restoring to your manually created restore point. This would prove that the System Restore process is functioning properly in Windows. Unfortunately, some users find out that System Restore was somehow broken exactly when they need it most. As the heading suggests, install each update by itself, restarting your computer after each one is applied. While we realize this might be time-consuming, this method prevented almost every Patch Tuesday issue we’ve ever experimented with. If you’re feeling particularly brave, or have never had problems with Windows updates before, you can instead try installing updates together as a group, something that we’ve also had a lot of success with. For example, install .NET updates of a particular version together, all the operating system security updates together, etc.
