I've had to do the 'system restore' a number of times, and occasionally got that 'couldn't complete, no files have been changed' message. But more often than not, the restore did complete, and restart revealed that the files had been changed back to what they should have been.

I've always just assumed it's a poor exit message, and been grateful that the machine was working again - never explored it in more depth.

Chris,
I have found that when installing multiple updates I often have to restart the computer more that once, in fact often some of the updates will not install the first time...
I do not know if this is your situation or not.

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SETI@home classic workunits 4,019
SETI@home classic CPU time 34,348 hours

Make a note of the "system restore" point itself. Should that fail, use an earlier one, 9/10, that's solves the issue.

If that fails, go back a week before the issue cropped up & use the restore point available around that time.

I am an absolute Windows beginner, so I install all the updates that Microsoft sends to my 8.1 OS. So far no problems, even if I have on it two projects using Virtual Machines (Atlas@home and vLHC@home) and two projects using a graphic board, Einstein@home and SETI@home. I did not install any new driver and I am using what was installed on this Hp Pavilion 500-152ea when I received it.
Tullio

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Chris windows has had a problem with updates for a long time , next time it happens you don't need to restore things just restart it . Sometimes you have to restart windows twice to get some updates to work .

Tullio I had the misfortune of having to reset a windows 8 machine lately and boy did windows update pee me off . It wouldn't load them as it was trying to do all 139 and you can't do that some need to be loaded 1 at a time so if you have to reset windows 8 AKA : use the recycle option you may get problems with win update , you will have to remember to not allow windows to update all off them and choose install manually and do only a few at a time and any that say you may need to restart do by them self . For your future reference

Other than the win update I must say win 8 worked fairly good but I'm not going to rush out to get a copy of it thou

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I found Windows 8 installed in the PC and it was updated soon to 8.1, but I have no DVD wit the OS. I was allowed to make a Recovery Image on 4 DVD when the OS was still 8, but I was not allowed to make another when the system was 8.1. There is a Recovery Image on the hard disk.
My files (not the OS) are copied daily on a Toshiba external disk connected via USB. On the whole I am satisfied with Windows 8.1 and am using it on several BOINC projects,
Tullio

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Press F8 and go into safe mode at Windows boot-up.

Doing this will probably help you a bit.

I found its usually the updates that are windows security updates marked kb that I need to install seperatly from any others , ive had the same problem on "update Tuesday" since December last year . I install everything else first and reboot then do the security updates on their own and seams to go ok Chris

I've learned over the years to "NEVER" let Microsoft upgrade your video drivers. Most other drivers update fine but I've always had problems with their graphics drivers. Check and see if there are in your recent Microsoft update history.

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Delta-V

I've learned over the years to "NEVER" let Microsoft upgrade your video drivers. Most other drivers update fine but I've always had problems with their graphics drivers. Check and see if there are in your recent Microsoft update history.

+1

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I also always check the bits that MS sends before just hitting the update button.
I had the misfortune years ago of letting update do something with my NV drivers.
It was CATastrophic.
Took me days to sort it on 9 rigs.
Never again.
MS tried to back off a good driver with a known bad one.

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"Freedom is just Chaos, with better lighting." Alan Dean Foster