What a nightmare! I just spent the last day trying to hack into my own computer after Windows KB4074588 Update locked me out. Lots of other PCs owners reported missing their peripherals and I was no exception. In fact, having called Microsoft, I was told that I would get a call back from escalated support on March 8th!! That’s 8 days from today. No. I wasn’t going to wait.
My computer just updated yesterday at the end of the day, so I had no idea what I was in for! I was unable to log into my computer after the update ran because my mouse and keyboard would not allow me to click on the opening screen so I could type in my Window’s password.
After hours of trying to hack my own computer, I finally solved this problem and wanted to make it available for anyone who has this same issue. If I could save someone the hours of investigation I spent, then this post is well worth it!
The first and most important thing is to be able to get into your computer at all in order to take advantage of this fix. The best way to do that is to hardboot your computer using the power button and as soon as you see the circles start rolling, then press and hold the power button to turn it off again. Repeat this two more times or until you see a message telling you that your PC is going into Auto Repair Mode. When you finally get a screen with buttons, don’t bother trying all the different options. I tried them all.
I tried the automatic diagnotics to fix the problem. I tried rolling back to an old version. I tried going into safe mode in a variety of ways (which did work by the way when I finally got in, I WAS in safe mode and had to disable THAT!) Trust me NONE of it works.
Find the choice on the screen “Advanced Options,” and click on it. And in the upper right hand corner you will see the command prompt. Open that.
The following instructions will uninstall the update that Windows so kindly place on your computer! You are now going to use DISM to Uninstall Windows KB4074588 Update at the Command Line.
You’ll need to make sure you are at an administrative level at the command prompt. You can check this by typing: CHKDSK at the prompt. If it runs, you are at administrator level. If not, I’m not sure I am able to help you. You will want to google if it is possible to change the command prompt from the command prompt. My guess is no.
But, If you’re running at the administration level you’ll want to enter either one of the following commands, depending on whether your Win10 installation is 32- or 64-bit:
If it is 32-bit: dism /online /remove-package /packagename:Package_for_RollupFix~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~~16299.248.1.17
If it is 64-bit: dism /online /remove-package /packagename:Package_for_RollupFix~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~16299.248.1.17
If you do not know which you are running, you can try both.
Once that command is completed, you will have removed the trouble-causing update. You then reboot Windows 10 to restore your computer to normal operation (with access to the missing peripherals restored).
I really hope this helps you if you are stuck with that horrible Windows KB4074588 Update.
Happy Problem Solving!
Debbie DuBois, Owner
Compass Marketing Group