Future Corrupted Windows Driver Installs Addressed in Redstone

Earlier today I wrote to tell you about a collection of firmware and driver updates for Microsoft Surface hardware line that saw the Surface 3, Surface Pro 3, Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book all get updates.

The Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book received massive updates in these April 2016 updates to address several areas and provide continued tweaks to the systems graphics and power subsystems.

However, alongside of those updates there were multiple reports of Windows Update errors that were causing one or more of the updates to fail on Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book. I was experiencing it myself on Surface Book.

I was tweeted a link to a fix from @onovotny which went to this website and it worked as advertised allowing me to update not only the failing update but also the firmware updates that were not being installed.

The fix in that link can be traced back to the Surface subreddit and this thread and discussions around the firmware/driver updates and the ensuing errors users were experiencing.

Well, a Windows developer from Microsoft jumped in and started helping people with the error one on one because each users system would need slightly different instructions to fix the issue which was a corrupted driver download from Windows Update.

What was interesting in this thread was not that a Windows dev was hanging out in the subreddit and offering assistance but a little tidbit he dropped in a later comment.

It turns out this error today was indeed caused by a corrupt driver download in Windows Update and was likely related to the BSOD most users saw when they began the update process.

According to Zac the Windows dev, this corrupted driver is why subsequent attempts would fail and the steps he was providing for each individual user would help them delete the corrupted driver download using the command line. That in turn would prompt Windows Update to download a new copy of the driver package.

Worked like a champ for me and many others in that thread and on Microsoft's Answers forums were reporting similar successes.

Apparently, according to Zac, this issue of a corrupted driver jamming up Windows Update will no longer require manual intervention to delete it and start all over because in Redstone the Windows Update system will recognize corrupted downloads and fix the error by automatically removing the bad driver package and downloading a new copy.

One less headache around system updates and maybe, just maybe, seeing Windows Updates work consistently.

What do you think about this prospective update to Redstone?

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