Cancel pending updates - Windows Server 2012 R2

Question

_{Wednesday, April 24, 2019 3:27 AM}

Hi there,

I've currently got a Windows Server 2012 R2 which has updates "pending restart", is there a way to remove these updates so that in the event we have a power outage or hardware failure, when the sever shuts down and restarts that it wont have these updates apply. Think of it as cancelling the update.

Your assistance is dearly appreciated.

Kind regards,
Tony

All replies (8)

_{Friday, April 26, 2019 6:11 AM ✅Answered}

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

Try to use the following command to uninstall the KB.

wusa /uninstall /kb:xxxxxx

Hope above information can help you.

Thanks again for your understanding and support.

Best Regards,

Otto 

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].

_{Wednesday, April 24, 2019 4:11 AM}

Hi,

Thanks for your post in our forum.

According to my understanding and researches, we can just uninstall the package install on the add/remove programs.

And, we can try to delete the file  in C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download

we can refer to the following link.

Can I uninstall an update that is pending reboot?

Hope above information can help you.

Thanks again for your understanding and support.

Best Regards,

Otto 

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].

_{Wednesday, April 24, 2019 4:20 AM}

Hello there Otto,

Thank you for your response, I'll use the information you've provided/linked and post my results soon.

Thank you,

Tony

_{Wednesday, April 24, 2019 7:11 AM}

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

I will wait for your test results.

Thanks again for your understanding and support.

Best Regards,

Otto 

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].

_{Friday, April 26, 2019 3:31 AM}

Using a replica virtualised environment for testing I deleted the directory

 C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download

However I was unable to find the updates in the add/remove program list.

I rebooted the replica environment to see if the deleted directory and containing files had worked, however it applied the updates.

For clarity, the three updates that I'm trying to avoid are:

2019-02 (KB4487080)

2019-04 - A monthly quality update

2018-12 (KB4483187)

_{Friday, April 26, 2019 6:30 AM}

Gave it a run, here were my exact steps:

1. Opened cmd as admin
2. Ran `wusa /uninstall /kb:4493446` (2019-04 Security update, pending restart)
3. A popup asking me if I want to remove the specified update, I select yes
4. The uninstall process is kicked off
5. After approximately 3 minutes of the uninstall process running, I'm given an error 0x800f081f

Upon some searching of this error, it appears this error is related to requiring having .net 3.5 framework installed.

The above process was run on a different kb, immediately after running the wusa command I get a popup to alert me the kb isn't installed on the system.

_{Monday, April 29, 2019 5:26 AM}

Attempted the above on exact duplicate of production servers to success. 

As a note, for anyone planning to do so in the future, the updates will still be marked as pending update, and will do so until you reboot the system, however the updates wont be applied.

Thank you very much for your help Otto. 

_{Monday, April 29, 2019 5:53 AM}

Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

I am glad to hear that.

If you have any questions or requirements, please feel free to contact us.

Thanks again for your understanding and support.

Best Regards,
Otto 

Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, contact [email protected].