Fixing Windows Update Error for KB3000850

Microsoft issued KB3000850, a 700MB patch. Microsoft labeled it as an optional update in November 2014 and has elevated it to . Microsoft has elevated it to an important update. This update creates problems for many, myself include because the update failed to install on one of my Windows 8.1 system.

Examining the search results from Google, it appears that the installation failures were generally the results of two.

• Some components of Windows are corrupted
• Some components of 3rd party software, e.g, hardware drivers are either corrupted or with bugs in installation procedures

With some efforts, I managed to install the update successfully on the Windows systems with problem. The procedure is as follows,

• Use the System File Checker tool (SFC) to repair missing or corrupted system files. Typically, we follow the procedure below.
  1. Open a Windows Command Prompt with elevated permission, i.e., run the Windows Command Prompt as administrator.
  2. Issue the following command using the System File Checker tool SFC.

     
                 sfc /scannow
             

     The above command scans integrity of all protected system files and repairs files with problems when possible.
• Use the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool to clear up Windows system image and recover the corrupted system image. Typically, we follow the procedure below.
  1. Open a Windows Command Prompt with elevated permission, i.e., run the Windows Command Prompt as administrator.
  2. Issue the following command using the Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool.

     
                 Dism.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
             

     In the above command, the /Online option indicates that the command is working on the currently running Windows, i.e., the system is currently "Online". Nevertheless, the above command scans the current running Windows for component store corruption, and then perform repair operations automatically. See the post for more examples using dism
• Fix issues with 3rd party drivers. This step is typically a manual operation. In my case, I have a Kodak printer and installed the driver to the Kodak printer. It appears that the Kodak driver installation procedure has some issues and prevented the KB3000850 update from being installed successfully.
  In my case, the steps I took to fix the problem were as follows,

  
    mkdir %WinDir%\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\wiaek002.inf_amd64_5b5a15ef9a58384c
    copy %WinDir%\Inf\wiaek002.inf %WinDir%\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\wiaek002.inf_amd64_5b5a15ef9a58384c
        

  
  The clue of this solution comes from the log file %WinDir%\Inf\setupapi.dev.log and two references that helped a great deal are these two posts. However, the steps would be different from case to case.
  A more detailed discussion is in another post.