Restarting - no it's not!

Every time I install updates (manually) I'm prompted to restart, which I know is normal. However, for the last three months my machine has been hanging at the 'Restarting' message and I've had to do a hard shutdown, which I hate doing. (Brings back memories of my ancient Win98 laptop which would never shut down properly - it took me 5 years to work out that a video driver was the culprit).
I got round to October's updates yesterday and decided just to leave it to do its thing. 2 hours later, still 'Restarting' so I pressed the off button.
Did I see Win 10 offered as an 'Important Update' in the list, or are my eyes deceiving me? I un-ticked it in time but nearly installed the little blighter.

Try checking event log for anything that is hanging. It is very likely 3rd party software causing this.

If you do "shutdown -f -r" at command prompt, does it still hang then?

I have no problem shutting down - it's the re-start after updating that hangs. I've had the same problem with MacAfee when it installs a software update and requires a re-start. Just tried a normal re-start and that worked fine.

So it hangs at "Restarting" ONLY after doing Windows Updates or McAfee? That is very very odd, never seen it hang at "Restarting" before only during windows updates. "Configuring WIndows Updates" maybe, but that's a different stage.

Makes no sense really.

In the first instance try running

sfc /scannow

at an elevated command prompt. Then reboot.

Also after that, try installing all available updates manually (both important and optional - you can ignore Win10 and Skype updates) so that no remaining updates are appearing in the list.

This time, don't click the "restart now" prompt, instead do "shutdown -r -f" at command prompt.

Edited by Pipexer (Sun 18-Oct-15 16:11:47)

Also, did you check the event log?

Run GWX Stopper to kill all Windows 10 nags and install attempts.

Thst will certainly not fix the problem, it might make it worse though.

Why?

How is installing GWX Stopper going to fix the problem with Windows not restarting properly -- effectively hanging on the "restarting" message?

However, can you not see how it is feasible that installing modifications to Windows Update OS (probably unsupported by Microsoft) might make things worse?

It was offered as solution to the subsidiary issue mentioned. It works by automating the steps that Microsoft suggest for killing Windows 10 nags so if they cause problems the fault lies with Microsoft themselves.

Edited by gomezz (Sun 18-Oct-15 18:37:37)