Microsoft has released Cumulative Update for Windows 10 KB3081424 on August 5, 2015. On some Windows 10 systems this update refuses to install. Here a short explanation, how to check and fix this issue.
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Update KB3081424 is a cumulative patch containing bug fixes and improvements for Windows 10. But some users are facing upgrade errors and the install fails. If an error code is dropped, it's possible to search the web for similar problems. A worse situation is, if the update install doesn't throw an error. Instead some users facing a reboot and after Windows restart, KB3081424 is shown as "installed" in Update history. But KB3081424 will be offered also in Settings – Upgrade for a re-installation (see this MS Anwers forum thread). Michael Taylor posted the hint to fix it – and some sites are discussing this issue (here and here for instance).
Check the registry for corrupt profile entries
The root cause for the install problem discussed above are orphaned user profiles (left from previous Windows used to upgrade to Windows 10). Therefore the cure is: Check your registry and clean orphaned entries.
1. Right click to Start and select Command prompt (Administrator) within the menu – confirm user account control.
2. Enter regedit.exe in command prompt windows and hit enter.
3. Navigate in the left pane of registry editor to key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList.
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4. Check subkeys like S-1-5-xx in right pane for stunned profil entries and delete them via context menu (right click).
My tip: Check the value of Profilimage – if it points to a non existent user profile or software in C:\users, delete the S-1-6-xx key. All profile entries pointing to Windows folders may not be deleted. After removing broken profile entries, restart Windows and check whether update KB3081424 installs properly.
Warnung: Deleting the wrong entries within the registry may damage your Windows seriously. You should create a system restore point before your change something. Also you may export a registry key via File –> Export into a .reg file.
