For the last week, whenever I shut down my Windows 7 laptop, Windows installs 6 updates before it shuts down. The next time I turn on my laptop, it tries to configure those updates, but I have been getting the message: Failure Configuring Windows Updates. All changes reverted." And then it goes through the same routine night after night. Why is it doing this and how can I get it to stop? It's mainly just a nuisance, but it adds an extra 5 minutes to my boot-up time.

Turn off automatic updates, then manually check for updates and install the updates one by one, rebooting between each install.

If it's just one update that's not installing, it can be blocking all the others.
If you can narrow the problem down to a single update, check what the update is for.

I've run into this problem when I'm shutting down the computer for the night. Many of the updates which reconfigure Windows require the system to be rebooted, so when the computer is being shut down rebooting can't take place.

To overcome this I've kept an eye on updates, and allowed updates to run their course before I'm ready to shut down for the night. So far, following this practice, I've had very few updates which could not be installed.

Personally, I would much prefer being able to say "please notify me of updates so I can download and install them at my leisure"

Too often at "shutting down" time, I am told (without any prior warning that I ever see) that I can't shutdown because a zillion updates are going to be dealt with - right there and then !!

Microsoft generally does updates on "update Tuesday," which is usually the 2nd Tuesday of the month. Mine sometimes come a day later. One of the nice things about Windows 8.1 is that it gives you a few days to install the downloaded updates. The nag message that your computer is going to be shut down in 10 minutes is gone.

You can. It's in the Windows updates settings somewhere.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ox2zo5c6nsvxzlt/UpdateSettings.png

SuMac,
If you don't know how to configure Windows updates, there are instructions for Windows 7 here
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2797-windows-update-settings-change.html

The link to the screenshot mj2c posted is where you actually choose how you want Windows update to work.

You can use the Start Search to run Windows Update manually by typing "windows update" or just the word
update

into the Start search. From there you can select "Windows Update" to run it manually.

Check this page for pictures
http://www.wikihow.com/Run-Windows-Update-in-Windows-7

When you get to step 4 on that page, don't choose the "install updates" button yet. Instead click the link for "important updates are available" so you get the list.
Uncheck the ones you don't want to install. (You can either try to install half of them at a time, or install them one by one). Then install the update or updates you've selected.


I had a group of updates that didn't want to install. It turned out one of them was supposed to be installed before one of the others, so none of them would install. Installing them one at a time eventually got them all in.

Thanks for your answers. I think I fixed the problem myself. I went into Windows Updates and manually downloaded the 6 critical ones. Then I restarted my computer and all the configuration seemed to finish completely.

I had this happen once before a couple of months ago, and it seemed to fix itself after about 3 days. I used to get a notification that there were updates ready to install, but now it waits until I'm ready to turn off the computer for the night.

Well there's a thing !! I already have that ticked as my preferences

So I un-ticked it, re-ticked it and then clicked on OK at the bottom.
I'll see if it works at the next update session.
[Mysterious ....]

It's the ComboBox you need to change, if it isn't set to that (as in the image) already.

ComboBox, mj2c?

Ah... thanks! I've never heard it called that before.

When I was doing a bit of Android programming they called them Spinners (IIRC) but in Windows
it's the ComboBox class. What do you know them as? Dropdowns?

Yup - dropdowns or sometimes context menu.

Yes, I've heard them called dropdowns. ContextMenus are a totally different control however.