Windows 11 update reportedly has weird installation errors that can take time to recover from

Some Windows 11 users are running into trouble when installing the latest update for the desktop operating system.

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That's patch KB5031455 for Windows 11 22H2, and it should be noted that it's an optional update - so you don't have to touch it. These preview updates are by their very nature more likely to have bugs in them, of course.

This update is an important one because it's the first to carry Moment 4 features for Windows 11 users who haven't elected to receive such features early - so this is the full general rollout of Moment 4, in other words.

Or it will be when the fully finished patch is released in November, as this is just the preview, as noted.

At any rate, Windows Latest highlighted that KB5031455 is causing problems for some of their readers who are running Windows 11 (who've posted in the comments section).

One issue for some people is that the update simply won't install, or worse still, it can fail, reboot, and fail again apparently. Having your system recover itself can take quite some time in some reported cases.

There are reports about this on Reddit, too. One Redditor, Praqoon, tells us:

"Windows 11 automatically installed this update and required me to restart my PC. After doing so, the system was stuck in a reboot loop for 15-20 minutes with a terminal problem."

"Message on a black screen read, 'Something did not go as planned. No need to worry - undoing changes. Please keep your computer on,' while the PC restarted multiple times. After which it booted into Windows 11 again, and the KB5031455 on Windows Updates is now greyed out."

Others are witnessing the usual installation fails with cryptic error messages - the usual helpful codes you can Google and scratch your head over (such as 0x800f0984, which is seemingly one to have been witnessed with KB5031455).

There's a single report of a Windows 11 user running into trouble with some PC games failing to work, but as it's just a sole gamer from what we can tell, we wouldn't read much into that.

The installation failures appear to be a thornier issue, though, but this is a major update, so it's not too surprising to see bugs cropping up now that testing is hitting a wider swathe of Windows 11 users. (And yes, remember, this is still in preview).

We'll just have to hope that any glitches and misfires are corrected by Microsoft in time for the full release of this cumulative update, which is due out in just over a week (November 8, Patch Tuesday).

As mentioned, this is a major update which introduces a huge piece of the Windows 11 puzzle going forward - namely the Copilot AI. (At the moment, it might be a glorified version of the Bing chatbot that was released early this year, but eventually, Copilot will be able to make all sorts of changes to Windows settings to save time for users).

As well as Copilot, the Moment 4 features brought in with this update include a new Windows Backup app - which is a big step forward - and a whole load of tweaks to the interface, including the Start menu (Recommended section), and a new modernized File Explorer Home panel.