What's happening? (Windows 10 edition)

[Hawkmoon]

Just had a Windows 10 update fail, for the second time in about ten days. I got a pop-up notice that I needed to restart my computer to complete some updates, so I dutifully closed all my running programs and restarted the computer. It went through a bunch of updates, then popped up a blue screen with the message:

We couldn't complete the updates
Undoing changes
Don't turn off your computer

It's now up and running, apparently normally, but does anyone know what's going on? This is a Dell Inspiron desktop, old enough that it's not capable of running Windows 11. Is that what's going on -- is Microsoft trying to stealth feed me Windows 11, and failing because the hardware isn't up to the task?

[lee n. field]

Just had a Windows 10 update fail, for the second time in about ten days. I got a pop-up notice that I needed to restart my computer to complete some updates, so I dutifully closed all my running programs and restarted the computer. It went through a bunch of updates, then popped up a blue screen with the message:

We couldn't complete the updates
Undoing changes
Don't turn off your computer

It's now up and running, apparently normally, but does anyone know what's going on? This is a Dell Inspiron desktop, old enough that it's not capable of running Windows 11.

Which is not all that old.

Is that what's going on -- is Microsoft trying to stealth feed me Windows 11, and failing because the hardware isn't up to the task?

Nope.  MS won't give you the option unless it's supported.

Start with the usual:  cmd or powershell with admin rights.  "sfc /scannow" followed by "dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth".

[robear]

Had the exact same thing happen to me a few weeks ago.

Updates failed.
Undoing changes.

It rebooted and seemed to be ok, so I didn't bother with it further.   
Then a few days later it said it needed to reboot for updates again and this time all seemed to go ok.
No problems since.

I built this desktop about 6-7 years ago.   Also not capable of W11 (so it says).

[Hawkmoon]

It happened a third time, after I had tried a couple of suggestions from members here who responded via PM. Remembering that our collective philosophy here is "Dust off and nuke it from orbit -- it's the only way to be sure," I have just done that. I used the Media Creation Tool to create an installation USB stick, and I used that to reinstall Windows 10. After that, the updates installed without a whimper.

[Grandpa Shooter]

When Microsoft force fed 10 onto my computer I paid a techie to take it off and then reinstall 8.1.  When it forced itself onto my tablet, I cleared it out.  When I kept having issues with "stuff" Microsoft was putting on my devices, I used the restore to a previous date option and then turned off all updates from Microsoft and haven't had an issue since.  Why do they think they have the right to load *&^& on my devices that I didn't authorize?

[HeroHog]

I do that ever year or two. Of course, I'm always playing with some strange, new, app for creating left-handed wiring braids for fun and profit or some such nonsense.