Patch for April 2018 Update sends Windows 10 into infinite boot loop

While many Alienware device owners still can’t upgrade their copy of Windows 10 to version 1803, aka April 2018 Update, many customers outside the Alienware fold are facing a whole different April 2018 Update issue: PCs in an infinite boot. The problem stems from the first cumulative update for Windows 10 version 1803, specifically the KB4103721 patch, that was slated to fix all issues related to the latest April 2018 Update feature upgrade. 

Issues with the cumulative update first surfaced Tuesday, May 8 on the Microsoft Answer forum, as an initial report stated that after installing the update, the affected PC refused to properly boot. Many responses report a similar problem, describing a continuous start loop, while others haven’t experienced any issues after installing the update. Meanwhile, Microsoft has not officially posted a response. 

A temporary solution is to restart the PC with an installation disc or USB drive in place. After that, you should see an option to “troubleshoot” the PC. The actual path is Repair your computer > Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings that requires you to restart the PC again and enter the Startup Settings menu. From there, enable Safe Mode and then uninstall the cumulative update if possible. 

Of course, there are other ways to get into Safe Mode, including using the command prompt. Many Windows 10 PC owners were forced to revert back to version 1709 (aka Fall Creators Update), reinstall April 2018 Update, and then turn off automatic updates so the evil Patch Tuesday update doesn’t return the PC to its previous continuous boot loop state. 

“They seriously need to STOP this forced update crap especially with such low quality of updates coming out with so many problems, ” one disgruntled customer states. “It is way past a sad joke now that they’ve not put back proper manual control over updates – someone at MS has to be doing it just to be obnoxious there is no way they’d leave it like this if they cared about the consumer experience a single bit.” 

Another device owner said he actually opened a support ticket with Microsoft, but phone technicians claimed the problem stemmed from Windows 10 blocking an administrative group policy, preventing the cumulative update from fully installing. They accessed the PC by remote, cleared the system update history, and then rebooted the PC. They were supposed to call back to see if the PC booted successfully into Windows 10, but never did. 

While automatic updates are convenient and keep your PC up to speed, not all updates work properly out of the box, as seen in this latest issue. Unfortunately, devices with Windows 10 Home have no real option for disabling automatic updates, only options for scheduling a restart and changing your active hours. Devices with Windows 10 Pro include the Group Policy Editor providing means to manually edit Windows Update. 

Microsoft’s April 2018 Update didn’t arrive without its own bag of issues. Outside the Alienware problem, many customers are facing the dreaded Blue Screen of Death while updating to version 1803. File Explorer is crashing for many customers while cursors are tracking slow, among other problems.