The latest cumulative update KB3194496 fails to install for a lot of users. We discuss a successful solution.
The latest cumulative update of Windows 10 – KB3194496 – appears to have a pretty common issue of just not installing for users. Somehow, when you try to install it, the install keeps failing without any helpful error message. There’s no quick way to tell how to resolve it.
Thankfully, there is indeed a way to solve this problem. We discovered it on Microsoft Answers where user AirportsFan shared it.
As it turns out, KB3194496 fails to install repeatedly because it fails to delete a particular task. The reason, as given in the logs, is an “Access is denied” error for the task:
MicrosoftXblGameSaveXblGameSaveTask
So, how do you fix it?
Steps
The steps are pretty simple and safe, though they appear to be quite the opposite when you read them for the first time. You need to manually delete the related tasks, and then Windows will automatically restore them after installing the KB3194496 update.
To delete ‘MicrosoftXblGameSaveXblGameSaveTask‘, you need to launch Windows Explorer, and go to C:WindowsSystem32TasksMicrosoft. From here, you need to delete ‘XblGameSave‘.
Furthermore, you need to delete a particular item in the registry. To do so, launch the Registry Editor by typing and entering ‘regedit’. Once it is open, navigate to ‘HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsNTCurrentVersionScheduleTaskCacheTreeMicrosoft’ and delete ‘XblGameSave’
Now, when you restart your Windows 10 computer, it will install the KB3194496 update successfully. This has been confirmed working for a number of people. We have checked from multiple online forums and communities.
Why I stopped using Windows
Last year, I made the switch from Windows to Mac. It has been the single best productivity-related decision of mine recently.
Windows is an powerful platform, but its weakness is its unreliability. It is just not a robust system. Things fail far too often. What tends to happen – especially with power users who do a lot of experiments – is that you end up wrestling with your computer to get work done, instead of it just getting out of your way.
With Mac OS, I have to wrestle significantly less. Like Windows, it does slow down to a crawl at times, and it does have some deeply annoying bugs. However, these are few and far between. Compared to Windows, it’s a huge improvement. I get more work done. The hardware and software melts away so I can focus on the task at hand.
I’m likely never going back to Windows. Unless you play games on your PC, I strongly recommend you switch to the Mac. There will be a few weeks of reduced productivity as you get used to the new system, but in the long-term you will be much better off than your Windows-using peers.