I have a client who operates with several older Windows 10 workstations, and I discovered that their domain setup had a group policy that disabled automatic updates. This became apparent when they started facing issues with MS Office sign-ins because of a vulnerability patched back in 2021. I aimed to update everyone to version 22H2, although I'll have to figure out how to convince them about upgrading to Windows 11 soon.
I changed the group policy back and even tried forcing updates manually, but none of the PCs managed to update successfully; they all got stuck during installation. Eventually, I had to resort to using the Windows Update Assistant on each machine. Scripting it would be ideal, but since it's a small office with only a few PCs, it seemed unnecessary. While I ultimately fixed the problem, it's concerning that so many Windows 10 machines aren't able to update as expected. Is this a widespread issue for older Windows 10 systems? What do you think causes these consistent update failures?
3 Answers
We've noticed similar issues with older machines, especially if they haven't been updated in a while. For instance, devices stuck on version 1709 had a lot of trouble when it came time to update, usually needing a couple of feature packs to work properly before they could jump to newer versions.
While I'm not in the MSP field, it does strike me as pretty risky to run unpatched machines for so long. I’d be worried about cyber insurance invalidation. Aren’t you supposed to ensure clients’ systems are up to date? This seems like a potential disaster waiting to happen.
Good points! I try my best to maintain systems, but I've found that clients often resist upgrades, especially smaller businesses. They don’t always see the value until something goes wrong.
When the servicing stack is seriously outdated, it creates a kind of catch-22. You can't update the updating mechanism if it won't update itself first, which complicates matters for an older setup like this.
Yeah, that sounds about right. If they are too outdated, Windows Update struggles to get them up to speed, making updates a real hassle.