How to Fix “We Couldn’t Complete The Updates Undoing Changes”

July 15, 2021 / Shayne Sherman

Windows has a safety protocol to undo changes on your system when windows updates go wrong or it’s unable to install the updates properly. Sometimes windows safety protocol is unable to undo these changes correctly and the system ends up going in a loop trying to undo the updates.

This could be a problem because you won’t be able to login to your computer and you cannot access important files.

Most of the time the fix here is to reinstall windows which will be a problem because you won’t be able to back up your files.

In this guide, we will show you how to fix this problem without reinstalling windows.

Start your computer in Safe Mode

Step 1: On sign in screen, hold on to shift key and click on the power logo and select restart

Step 2: After your pc restarts, an option screen will pop up select troubleshooting

Step 3: Click on Advanced Options

Step 4: Click on Startup Settings

Step 5: Click on restart, after your computer restarts press on F5 to boot on safe mode with networking

Now that you are in safe mode, follow the methods below to fix the error.

Method 1: Run DISM

Step 1: Press on Windows key + X and start command prompt (admin)

Step 2: In command prompt, enter the following lines:

DISM.exe/Online/Cleanup-image/Restorehealth

Step 3: Press Enter

Step 4: Wait for the process to finish (5-8 minutes) and reboot your computer in normal mode to see if the issue is fixed

Method 2: Use Windows Update Troubleshooter

Step 1: Press Windows key and click on the settings icon

Step 2: On the search bar, type windows update troubleshoot

Step 3: Open Find and fix windows update problems

Step 4: Click on next

Step 5: Wait for the troubleshooter to finish checking your system and reboot your computer on normal mode.

If the problem is still present and you are stuck on undoing changes on windows. Reboot your computer in safe mode again and follow the next method.

Method 3: Run SFC Scan

The following command will scan all the system files on your computer and try to fix and recover lost system files.

Step 1: Press Windows key + X on your keyboard and select Command Prompt (Admin).

Step 2: When Command Prompt open, type “sfc /scannow” and press Enter.

Step 3: After the scan is finished a system message will appear. See the list below to guide you on what it means.

Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations – This means your operating system doesn’t have any corrupted or missing files.
Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation – The repair tool detected a problem during the scan and an offline scan is needed
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them – This message will appear when the SFC was able to fix the problem it detected
Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them. – If this error occurs, you will need to repair the corrupted files manually. See the guide below.

**Try to run SFC scan two to three times to fix all the errors**

Method 4: Delete Recent Windows Updates

If you are experiencing this problem after a windows update, you should try uninstalling the update before the problem occurred. Follow the steps below to uninstall recent windows updates.

Step 1: Press Windows key + S and search for Control Panel

Step 2: Open Control Panel

Step 3: Click on Program and Features