Thread: What happens if you shut down your laptop while windows is downloading updates?

It says in the icons that windows is downloading updates (24%) then i shut it down is it bad?

It will just redo when you startup again.You should let it finish though.

If it was only downloading them then that is not a problem.
It will just carry on downloading them when you switch on again.

If it was installing them then that is not a good idea.

Downloading just means it is getting the files from the web - so no system changes were happening at that time.

Nope. I will just continue downloading them when you turn it back on. I do it all the time. Just don't turn it off when it actually installig the updates.

It will just download again. Avoid shutting down your laptop while downloading to avoid broken laptop.

If it is only "downloading" updates then nothing bad will happen. It just means you will have to download them again when you reboot. However if the updates are "installing" when you force a shutdown then you could get a corrupt system, so be careful.

If you have windows updates set to automatically download and install then as this is a continuous process and the install goes ahead as soon as the download has finished then although the message says "downloading" the install could actually be running already which could give you a problem.

I suggest that if you have windows updates configured for automatic download and install and you often shutdown and ignore the update process that you change the settings to just download and then you can choose an install time when you don't need to power down the computer. Just to be safe.

No. its not bad. It will resume downloading from the last patch it got.
But be careful when it is applying the updates. if anything goes wrong, you can undo it. because windows will create a restore point before applying updates.
just boot up with your windows CD/DVD and choose "repairing your windows" and restore your system.

Nothing, it will just redo the updates it missed next time it is shut down. In VERY VERY rare cases it can cause the system to corrupt.

A bunch of errors depends on what is being installed , mines went out during a storm while updates being installed , had to reinstall windows because of the critical updte that was being installed , let it complete better off that way