Incomplete Updates

Issue

A result marked with a potential risk score confirms that a previous software update installation was not completed. You must restart the computer to finish the installation. If the incomplete installation was a security update, the computer may be at risk until the computer is restarted.

Solution

We recommend that you restart the computer as soon as possible and scan the computer again for security updates. If the score provided by this check is a blue asterisk (best practice), the notes provided by this check should also be reviewed to understand the limitations of some updates.

Notes

This check takes advantage of an improvement added to Update.exe, the standard update installer for Windows products. This installer and the improvement used by this check are described in Microsoft Knowledgebase article 832475. The check is able to accurately identify when an update is in an incomplete state if it was packaged with version 6.1.22.0 of the installer. However, it is not able to provide this indication for older updates which may be present and in this state.
To determine the version of Update.exe, extract the contents from the shipping package using the procedures in Microsoft Knowledgebase article 832475. Once extracted, use the tables in the Extracted package directory structure to find Update.exe. View the version number by right-clicking Update.exe and then clicking Properties. In the Update.exe Properties dialog box, click the Version tab.
Updates packaged using the Windows Installer are also not evaluated by this check. The registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\PendingFileRenameOperations can sometimes be used to determine whether a restart is required. If this key exists and has files listed within it, a restart is pending.