Fixing the Vista Updating Problem

So I downloaded the Windows Automated Installation Kit (WAIK) and installed it on my work computer and used it to create a bootable Windows PE that I burned to a disc. I booted my laptop up using the disc and bam! Finally got a command prompt! Time to go old school on this problem.

First things first, I copied all my important files over to my external hard drive. Definately wanted to save them before I did any hacking and slashing. Next, as I had discovered, I preceeded to delete the pending.xml file in the c:\windows\winsxs directory. Supposely, this file is what tells Vista what updates it’s suppose to be installing and without it, Vista wouldn’t try to install/update anything.

After deleting it, I removed the boot disc and reboot the laptop. I waited… and waited… and waited (Vista takes forever to boot, don’t ya know) and bam! The login screen appeared! The computer booted without getting stuck in the infinite reboot bug.

Now, of course, I have encountered a new problem… deleting that file has confused Vista and Windows Update no longer functions. I’m going to have to find a solution… to fix my solution. But at least Vista isn’t stuck anymore.

Tackling Vista

Okay, so after search for a little bit, I should be able to use Windows PE (Preinstallation Environment) to boot up and fix the “stuck while updating” problem. At the very least, I should be able to at least use it to recovery all of my files I need to save before I nuke vista back to the stoneage. If that fails, maybe I can use one of the many other PEs out there to achieve my goal. I will not fail.

Vista Stuck Updating… Again.

So I decided to run Microsoft Update on my laptop (that has vista installed) because it’d been about 3 months since I had actually run it (I keep auto-update turned off), only now I find myself stuck in the same position I was in last year around this same time… Vista has once again gotten stuck while updating in an endless loop of shutdown restarts.

Supposely, this was a problem with a prepatch for Service Pack 1 and that it was fixed by a prepatch for the prepatch, but obviously, it has to be caused by something else entirely, considering that I’ve had SP1 installed on the laptop for over a year now. Vista just more or less sucks, but we all know that (Here’s to hoping for Windows 7 to be better).

Last time this happened, I simply just said “screw it” and reformatted and reinstalled, because there wasn’t anything important on the laptop at the time. Now, on the other hand, there is important stuff on the laptop that I haven’t backed up recently (silly me) that I need to recover.

One option would be to use the Windows Vista disc to get into system restore and roll back before the updates, but sadly, I can’t do that, because all I have is a manufacturer’s recovery disc that will return the system to factory defaults, which is not what I want to do. I’m gonna have to find another option. Anything that I can boot from that will get me a command prompt (or perhaps something better) before Windows even tries to load.

Time to search the internet!