- Windows 11 updates are being improved to stop installation errors
- An update that would have previously crashed now gets extra attention in the form of automatic attempts to restore
- This means that the update process will take longer, but will hopefully succeed in the end where it would have failed before
Microsoft has been working hard on Windows 11 updates lately, and there’s another step on the way that should hopefully cut down on annoying installation errors.
Windows Latest reports that if you notice that a monthly update is taking a long time to apply and the installation process (shown by a spinning circle with a percentage progress indicator) seems to continue for a long time, you don’t need to worry unnecessarily that Windows 11 might have crashed.
In fact, this could be a good sign, as Microsoft explains in a recent post about Windows Update improvements: “We ensure devices remain secure by default through automatic update failure recovery – taking additional steps in the background to help the update complete successfully without user intervention.
“This means your device will automatically attempt to recover from installation errors in real-time – making some updates take longer to complete, but ensuring they have a higher success rate.”
What this means is that before Microsoft made this change, an update that went down this path would have simply failed. With the new way of working, Windows 11 notices the point of error and then goes back to try to fix the problem.
This is why you could be waiting for a pretty long time, but hopefully for a positive outcome in the end – a successful update, rather than being dumped back to the desktop with a “failed to install” message attached to the latest patch in Windows Update.
Analysis: putting an end to the stop codes
This is another useful feature for Windows 11 updates and will hopefully put an end to what has been one of the longest running bugbears of Windows 11 updates, and something that has been a persistent thorn in the side of Windows 10 users.
We’ve regularly seen a rash of installation errors with certain updates ever since Windows 10 first arrived back in 2015. This has been a problem that just keeps cropping up, with many reports of an update failing (often with a weird and meaningless ‘stop code’ error), and with any luck we won’t see this nearly as much going forward.
It’s important to note that Microsoft also says it has “made steady progress in reducing the download and overall time it takes to apply a Windows update” and is working to get this time down even further during 2026. So while some updates may take longer, this is only in circumstances where they would have otherwise failed completely. (As a side note, it’s also worth remembering that you may currently experience a lengthy update with multiple reboots for a specific reason related to the Secure Boot feature).
Microsoft’s other important changes to Windows 11 updates recently include offering a facility that I’ve personally wanted for a long time, the ability to delay a patch indefinitely (or as long as it takes until a bug you’re concerned about is fully fixed). The checks for when updates are installed have also been refined, and unexpected sudden reboots for upgrades should be a thing of the past before long. On top of that, you can now skip applying updates in the Windows 11 setup process if you want.
To be fair to Microsoft, it pretty much fixes all the major issues surrounding Windows 11 updates.
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