Windows 11 25H2 update failure.

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paulgr

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#323973 11-Feb-2026 06:40

PC was trying to update Windows 11 up to version 25H2 and failed.
Then flippant message on screen happily told me:
"Something did not go as planned. No need to worry--undoing changes. Please keep your computer on."
Did this three times in a row, and again the next day.
Getting annoyed at my time being wasted, I pushed on a Windows 11 image maybe a month old.
Windows update did it again.
Gave up and reinstalled Windows 11 through their "cloud" install.
Now up to Windows 11 25H2 after wasting most of a day installing Windows 11, customizing it, then reinstalling a shed-load of apps - Happy days.

I'm sure the next few years will interesting as Windows probably slides into a SaaS product, going back a couple of generations to the old days with data centers replacing mainframes and us users back on dumb terminals as most apps work only in browsers.
Sorry for the rant.

cddt

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#3460412 11-Feb-2026 07:27

Had the same problem back with the 1709 or 1803 update or whatever the naming scheme was back then. It would fail to install, reboot, and start downloading again. Since fibre hadn't reached our street yet (centralish Auckland, go figure), we were on a very flaky ADSL service. This meant the update took two hours to download, during which no one in the household could use the internet. And then after it was downloaded, it would force a restart, no matter what I was doing at the time. And the cycle would start again.

And that's how I came to use Linux exclusively at home. For that I am eternally thankful!

gehenna

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#3460420 11-Feb-2026 08:25

I had that one fail repeatedly. I put it down to the fact I was on an Insider build before I decoupled myself from Insider and went back to public releases. It was successfully removed from Insider and it did update with a public build once, but then 25H2 just kept failing every time. I ended up reinstalling Windows, which was probably a good time to do that on my PC at the time anyway. I can understand it'd be annoying to have to do that just to have an update succeed.

nztim

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#3460425 11-Feb-2026 08:40

If the machine was upgraded from Windows 10 to 11 then the recovery partition is too small, you will need to back up your system, boot off a USB with 25H2 clear the partitions and re-install

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

sqishy

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#3460465 11-Feb-2026 10:09

I had an issue sometime back, had to delete the Font files as it ran out of space then do update. Can't recall exact steps but google is your freind.

nitro

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#3460467 11-Feb-2026 10:18

sqishy:

I had an issue sometime back, had to delete the Font files as it ran out of space then do update. Can't recall exact steps but google is your freind.

this is the same thing that @nztim mentioned. for some (or at some point?), deleting the font files won't be enough. the recovery partition was something like 100MB, now it needs to be 250MB.

there are tools that allow you to resize the partition on a live disk, but the usual risks apply if anything should go wrong. back up. back up. back up.

nztim

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#3460614 11-Feb-2026 13:30

nitro:

this is the same thing that @nztim mentioned. for some (or at some point?), deleting the font files won't be enough. the recovery partition was something like 100MB, now it needs to be 250MB.

there are tools that allow you to resize the partition on a live disk, but the usual risks apply if anything should go wrong. back up. back up. back up.

I would only attempt this if you have software that you cannot get the installers/product keys, etc for anymore

Think of 25H2 as a time to get a nice fresh install of your OS / Apps

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.