Windows 10’s latest fail is an update that won’t install for some

Windows 10
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Windows 10 has witnessed yet another update which has become problematic for some users, who can’t install the thing.

We are talking about KB4541335, which is an optional update, mind – these will be halted soon enough anyway, due to disruption caused by coronavirus. But while Microsoft is still providing them, those who want to go ahead with an installation would probably appreciate the ability to be able to do so.

In this case, however, some folks running Windows 10 May 2019 Update and November 2019 Update are reporting that the update fails with an uninformative error message of some variety, or in some cases even crashes their PC, as Windows Latest reports.

Some denizens of Reddit have observed installation failures, and even those who have successfully installed the update have hit trouble in some cases. One user notes that the update apparently induced ‘terrible input lag’ in all their games – sounds pretty nasty – which went away after KB4541335 was removed from their system. Although that is, of course, just one anecdotal experience…

Mostly minor fixes

KB4541335 fixes a bunch of relatively minor issues, although there are some slightly bigger tweaks that some might be keen to get, such as a solution for a bug that prevents apps closing in some cases, and a problem where the mute button doesn’t work with the Your Phone app on certain devices has been resolved.

There are multiple reports of people having issues on Reddit, as mentioned, as well as complaints on Microsoft’s Answers.com forum, and the Windows 10 Feedback Hub.

Of course, as it’s an optional update, you don’t need to install this, so you could just leave it be and hope that Microsoft provides a solution for whatever underlying problems are causing these hiccups.

Several Reddit users have suggested that the solution is to perform an in-place upgrade (repair install) via the media creation tool, but unless you’re particularly desperate for the patch, we’d suggest that waiting for Microsoft to implement its own solution might be the best course of action (especially if you’re not confident about doing something like a repair install).

In all likelihood, the fixes you get here probably aren’t worth going to great lengths to get hold of – but obviously it would be nice if you could simply install an update without getting random (and meaningless) error messages thrown in your face.

Darren is a freelancer writing news and features for TechRadar (and occasionally T3) across a broad range of computing topics including CPUs, GPUs, various other hardware, VPNs, antivirus and more. He has written about tech for the best part of three decades, and writes books in his spare time (his debut novel - 'I Know What You Did Last Supper' - was published by Hachette UK in 2013).