Reboot Loop After KB4525246 Update

Several other sites confirmed recent server failures after running Windows Updates. Here are the basic steps I used to recover.

Attach a keyboard and enter BIOS setup. Make sure Quick Boot is disabled.

Press F8 while restarting the server to open the Advanced Boot Options menu.

I tried Safe Mode, but did not see a successful boot there.

Next I tried Repair Your Computer, which brought me to the “Choose an option” screen.

Select Troubleshoot, then select Command Prompt. Follow the instructions to log in as one of the administrators.

I found that this particular Command Prompt uses X: to represent Windows PE, and that the server image still resides at C:

I viewed the Windows Updates status using the following command.

dism /image:C:\ /get-packages /format:table|more

The KB4525246 update showed up as “Installed” and I found that I could uninstall it with this next command.

dism /image:C:\ /remove-package /packagename:Package_for_RollupFix~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~9200.22905.1.5

This showed a progress bar at 100% almost right away, but then took about 10 or 20 minutes to complete itself. After returning to the “Choose an option” screen and selecting Continue, the server restarted normally. I was able to re-install KB4525246 without any further abnormalities.