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Microsoft releases Windows Security updates every second Tuesday of the month. It’s recommended that your device be updated monthly with security patches called quality updates.
What will happen if one of the patches breaks a necessary functionality on your device? If Microsoft knows this issue, they may release another patch/update/hotfix to fix it. However, if you do not want to wait for MS to release the hotfix, you can uninstall this patch/update it.
Before we go into the steps for removing the update, you will require a Windows patch KB ID number. Each Windows update patch applied to your device has a unique KB ID number. You can find this Information on your device’s Windows update history. You can also search for the KB number on the Microsoft update catalog site.
There are multiple ways to remove Windows updates from your device. You can go to Settings app > Windows update and Remove a specific patch/update.
The second option is to use Powershell, which is what we are going to look into today. It’s a quick and easy method if you have local administrator rights on the device.
Not all the updates can be removed using Powershell; specific updates are required to keep the OS updated; these are called Service stack updates. If you try to remove this kind of update, you may get an error: Your machine requires Servicing Stack update and cannot be uninstalled.
Servicing stack updates improves the reliability of the update process to mitigate potential issues while installing the latest quality updates and feature updates. If you don’t install the latest servicing stack update, there’s a risk that your device can’t be updated with the latest Microsoft security fixes.
About Service stack updates
STEP 1 – Find Windows Update KB ID with Powershell
To uninstall a Windows update using Powershell, the First step is to find the patch’s Windows update KB ID number. To find this Info, you can run the Powershell command below:
wmic qfe list brief /format:table
The output of this command will display Information about Windows Updates, such as when they were installed and HotFixID. We are Interested in the HotFixID number, which is also referred to as KB ID or KB number. Copy the one you want to remove.
STEP 2 – Uninstall Windows update using Powershell
The next step is to remove this update from your device, For this, you can follow the below steps:
- Go to Start > search for Powershell > Right-click on it and click Run as administrator.
- Run a command on Powershell console Wusa /uninstall /kb:<HotfixIDnumber> (HotfixIDnumber of the update ID number without the letters “KB“).
Example:
wusa /uninstall /kb:5030651
After you run this command, a Windows Update Standalone Installer warning pop-up shows. Click on Yes to confirm the removal of this update.
- Restart your device when prompted to complete this process.
There could be cases when you find that the update is not removed from the device and fails. Therefore, please make sure you are not removing a system update that cannot be removed. Using Powershell, you can remove a normal Windows update and security updates.
After restarting the device, you can launch Powershell once again and run wmic qfe list brief /format:table to confirm if the Windows update patch, which was causing issues, has been removed successfully.
