Why Do Half of my Windows Automatic Updates Fail?

About that much, seemingly, regardless of the version one's running.

So many updates fail on a regular basis it's not even funny. More ridiculous, recently I've been noticing Windows 7 doesn't even automatically check all the updates it claims are important. Yes, I have it set to install Windows Updates automatically, but this would still prompt me to "start" the updates.

I'm pretty sure it has something to do with my having Microsoft Office 2003 (the 2003 version of MS Word, Excel, PPT, etc.) but, that's not an excuse. They're prompting me to install updates for my software they're JUST releasing, and yet they fail seemingly almost every time? Do they even test the sh!t they release to the public?

And how come sometimes they'll install if I manually do it myself as opposed to when I try doing it automatically? Why should it be any different?

Some updates depend on previous updates, some updates cannot be applied at the same time and often require a reboot between them; so if you do not keep them up to date that can explain why some won't install but will later when you do it manually.

Occasionally you will get updates that do not apply to your computer, especially older hardware and software can be non-specific enough that you "might" need it or it might not apply to your machine. In this case you need to manually go out to windows update and right-click on the item and choose "hide this update", otherwise it will constantly try to install and fail.

Some users have issues with some of the Windows 7 updates not installing properly. Several months ago most of the moderators and some others were having issues with a set of five Windows updates not installing regardless of the number of times we tried.

A few of us figured out that if one chooses to install ONE update at time, then the updates went much smoother.

It just sometimes happens and I believe it's through no fault of Microsoft either. It is what it is... aka "kaka happens".

ahh...could ole kaka....that makes perfect sense...lol.

I think it's happened to about every one at some point.