[Fix] “Your Windows 8.1 Install Couldn’t be Completed, Something Happened” Error Message

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1. My problem is even worse! 8.1 tried to install all by itself, without my permission, & didn’t ask about updates or anything! Install failed, but it had already deactivated & deleted a LOT of win8! No services or apps & it won’t let me install updates or anything else. I can’t find a way to find my OEM win 8 license key. Samsung laptop. Desktop screen blank, 3 icons on taskbar/tray. 1 is start button, which doesn’t work right at all. Also can’t find an OEM windows 8 re-installer, even if I had my license/product key. And if I find both, how do I install it, since it won’t LET me install anything? In case you wonder, it had stopped & deleted all my recovery stuff. HOW did anyone get theirs to reverse back to Win8??? Even my recovery partition is gone. If it’s only problem was updates, why wouldn’t MS have win 8.1 check to see if you have all updates and just NOT try to install Win 8.1 if all updates aren’t there? Other peeps I talked to also had 8.1 install w/o their permission recently. If you REALLY have a solution, pls help. Thanks tons 🙂 Skye

2. I have this problem at the moment. I had no problems before but ended up buy an SSD installed windows, installed all the updates there are no hidden updates. after trying to install 8.1 it would take hours to boot “least I think it booted the screen was black and the windows logo was gone”
   during this time I tried the auto repair of course didn’t work. couldn’t access safe mode or any option with F8 used so put the install disk in and when to cmd tried chkdsk, sfc offline with windows and boot nothing ended up using bcdedit to set boot menu to legacy started a safe mode boot… this is the odd part again took a couple of hours to boot to safe mode but didn’t boot fully had back ground and cursor but no explorer. said screw it and switched to the ps3 and left it. switched back over and it restared/restored its self to before the 8.1 install and gave me the install error.

   any idea on what else to try?

3. My windows8 could not be updated 8.1.if i check for any updates no pending updates and also not any in restore hidden update.when i begin the process from win store it takaes nearly2 hours and finally says could’nt be completed i tried four times.i diagnosised my pc for any errors i didnt find any.really i hate this operating system

4. what a complete nightmare 7 hours so far to download 8.1 from 8.0 i will never spend another penny on anything that requires any microsoft product

5. Please, does windows 8 revert back to its previous state if the upgrade to 8.1 fails? The upgrade couldnt complete and my system has been loading for about 4hrs now, can i do a hard reset? cos i rly cnt do anything on my system and i dont knw if a hard reset is ok …. please help.

6. This Windows 8.1 update is making me ill. I have been trying to complete this update for nearly a month now and everytime I perform the operation, it always says that something happened blah blah. I am not a techie person. Whew!!!

7. i have not any update in restore hidden update. what did i do ?? plz help me.

8. If 8.0 was a car it would be subject to a mandatory recall. Microsoft doesn’t want to know.
   After my (failed) experiences trying to upgrade a brand new laptop from 8.0 to 8.1 I have finally switched to Apple. Expensive and a hassle but a lot less pain in the long-run.

9. So I had a like problem with Win 8.1 update. Find this site looking for help.
   Mine was a little different in that I only saw the error “Windows 8.1 install couldn’t be complete”. When I clicked on it for more information I see something to the effected “Preparing your system for the update, you will be notified when ready….”; that had been for days. Of the Solution I saw here
   Tried Method 1 – Make sure all updates a current and there are no hidden updates that have not been applied. Still had the same issue.
   Tried Method 2 – Disable the Anti-Malware application. – Still had the same issue.
   Didn’t try Method 3 – system restore.

   I found an 4th method – had this update come through windows update and not the store I might had tried anyway… reset or clear windows update.
   open a Cmd prompt as admin
   type in each of the follow (or copy and paste them to a batch file and run that)
   attrib -h -r -s %windir%\system32\catroot2
   attrib -h -r -s %windir%\system32\catroot2\*.*
   net stop wuauserv
   net stop CryptSvc
   net stop BITS
   ren %windir%\system32\catroot2 catroot2.old
   ren %windir%\SoftwareDistribution sold.old
   ren “%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\application data\Microsoft\Network\downloader” downloader.old
   net Start BITS
   net start CryptSvc
   net start wuauserv

   (btw if you frequently work with different windows computer copy that to a batch file – it will fix lots of windows update issues)
   now try the 8.1 update from the store. That worked for my issue.

   Last – I want to respond to a comment made here by Patrick and “force updates”… If you think moving from Windows to OSx (apples mac os), is going to stop that, you are very much mistaken. Apple has a much short product life cycle than that of Microsoft and always has. To some extend it has been to Microsoft harm that they support their products for so long.

10. I had the same problem, all updates were installed and there were no hidden ones. I had uninstalled the McAfee antivirus already long before, but disabling the Windows Firewall helped and instantly the download worked. Just don’t forget to re-enable it afterwards, especially when you connect to non-protected networks.

11. Your “Windows 8.1 Install Couldn’t be Completed, Something Happened” Error Message now resolved, at least for me. After reading through. I just searched and manually download KB2871389 on google which later redirected me to microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=40098. I installed the the required update,then my window 8Pro restarted and configured. when i clicked the download link in windows 8 store, it started downloading. It only remains to see how far the download will go. Good luck!

12. I tried this and I hated every second of the fact this worked………. Thank you sir for fixing my dilemma no matter how much it pissed me off that it was something so stupidly unimportant and unneeded I do thank you for leading me in the right direction.

13. Had to do a system Refresh after a restore crashed my windows 8.1 and now w8.1 won’t install. It gets stuck at 82% every time. Thing is it keeps trying to install.Does anyone have any siggestions. All the updates are done and I read all the comments here but no idea what to do .Windows 8.1 upgraded fine when it was forced on me but now I’m constantly having to reboot back to 8 when it gets stuck at 82%.Damn thing wants to try again now … sigh:( Any suggestions please other then suicide ?

14. Try turning off antivirus software when downloading and installing upgrade to Windows 8.1, after all important updates are installed. After installation completes, restart and turn antivirus software back on.

    Kaspersky 10 and Norton AV interfered with multiple 8.1 upgrades I’ve done.

15. thankyou! i did what you suggested and made sure i had all the updates installed and it finally worked!

16. my window 8.1 cannot complete installation..it on shows message says restart to finish installation even if i do restart it does not continuous. was restoring my system

17. I couldn’t take that Windows 10 with all those “critical error died” blue screens so I did a clean reboot of my operating system to Windows 8.0 to relieve myself of the headaches with that. Now I am trying to update to 8.1 (which was a cool operating system with few errors) and now it says that foolishness about the installation could not be completed. I run a business and will have to go back to my old Windows XP computer til I figure this out. Btw, That is still the BEST Windows version ever..Why couldn’t we just have Windows XP forever? SIGHS…

18. I am installing windows 8.1 pro, just moving from windows 7 Ultimate. When installing windows 8.1 pro, it comes to the time when i got the message telling me that “windows 8.1” failed to install.This kept reappearing for more than 3 tries. Could you please help me learn how I can fix this problem.

    Thanks,

19. when i tried to instal 8.1 i need to update windows, then there’s error code 80070103. the solution is to hide the update, and then when i tried to update again the error above appeared. so how can i update 8.1 while i cant instal windows update? thx

20. i have done this but it is taking for ever to find up dates and i done it previously and it still happens

21. my window 8.1 cannot complete installation..it on shows message says restart to finish installation even if i do restart it does not continuous. was restoring my system

22. Mr.Ravi
    You can delete the system partition and try it …………………….

23. I have exactly the same problem as Phil. 82per cent installed and computer hangs up. Did Phil get a solution?

24. Success!! Left my computer running overnight at 82 Per cent and it has got over its constipation and installed windows 8.1.Hurrah !!

25. I installed all updates then attempted to upgrade. After 2 hours of pretending to upgrade it cannot. This has happened about 20 times over a period of 4 years. Latest codes were:
    0xc1900101 – 0x2000A. Microsoft has become a huge disappointment over the last 6 years.

26. It’s pretty clear that VG did not “find the culprit”.

27. After updating my hp laptop from windows 8 into 8.1 my computer cannot be used anymore. I restart it but suddenly it turns into black only. What should I do?

28. ^^ It seems an incompatible driver problem or incomplete upgrade issue. If you are able to use it for some time, run Windows Update and make sure all updates have been installed.

29. Solution I saw here
    Tried Method 1 – Make sure all updates a current and there are no hidden updates that have not been applied. Still had the same issue.
    Tried Method 2 – Disable the Anti-Malware application. – Still had the same issue.
    Didn’t try Method 3 – system restore.

    I found an 4th method – had this update come through windows update and not the store I might had tried anyway… reset or clear windows update.
    open a Cmd prompt as admin
    type in each of the follow (or copy and paste them to a batch file and run that)
    attrib -h -r -s %windir%\system32\catroot2
    attrib -h -r -s %windir%\system32\catroot2\*.*
    net stop wuauserv
    net stop CryptSvc
    net stop BITS
    ren %windir%\system32\catroot2 catroot2.old
    ren %windir%\SoftwareDistribution sold.old
    ren “%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\application data\Microsoft\Network\downloader” downloader.old
    net Start BITS
    net start CryptSvc
    net start wuauserv

    (btw if you frequently work with different windows computer copy that to a batch file – it will fix lots of windows update issues)
    now try the 8.1 update from the store. That worked for my issue.

30. ^^ That solution is given at following link:

    https://www.askvg.com/fix-windows-update-problems-using-automatic-reset-script/