Hung at Couldn't Complete Updates Undoing Changes

Setting up a new VM for a client today and ran into a new issue. Well new to me. Fortunately others have seen this before.

In a brand new Windows Server 2012 R2 VM (provided by Dell), I downloaded all of the available updates from Windows Update and started the installation. After a long period of time, the VM rebooted and I got the following message:

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

I'm a reasonably patient guy, but after 40 minutes of this I decided that waiting longer wasn't going to fix this. The first round of searching suggested that I disable Secure Boot for the VM. Apparently others had good luck with this:

• http://blog.powerbiz.net.au/fixes/we-couldnt-complete-the-updates-undoing-changes-error-on-windows-server-2012-r2/

Unfortunately I restarted the VM and Windows Server 2012 R2 hung in exactly the same spot again. Although I only waited about 10 minutes this time before declaring it hung. So, what's next.

There is at least one Windows Update that expects Bitlocker to be installed for Gen 2 VMs. You don't need to encrypt anything but the feature needs to be installed. On my system it was Security Update KB2920189 that seemed to cause the issue.

You might be able to install BitLocker by booting the VM into safemode. However, there is a better way. On the Hyper-V host, you can use Server Manager to add the feature to the VM while it is turned off.

To see the details with beautiful screenshots, check out this link:

• http://andyparkes.co.uk/blog/index.php/2015/03/25/adding-roles-and-features-to-an-offline-virtual-machine/

After installing the BitLocker feature in the VM, some updated completed installing quickly and I could log in. Most of the updates failed and I had to run Windows Update again, but all was good.