How to uninstall an update in Windows 11 – 4 ways

In some cases, the user needs to know how to uninstall an update in Windows 11 in order to solve a particular problem on their computer. Sometimes it happens that problems occur on the PC due to the installation of updates for the Windows OS.

The Windows operating system is the most popular software in the world, running a huge number of devices. To maintain operational health and address various issues, Microsoft releases regular Windows updates that include performance improvements, bug fixes, and security vulnerabilities.

Sometimes it happens that installing Windows updates leads to software or hardware problems on your computer.

Problems like this happen mostly because of the sheer number of hardware configurations that the Windows operating system has to take into account during installations and updates. Including due to the fact that in such a situation it is impossible to foresee everything.

Is it possible to remove Windows updates on a PC

While tech experts always recommend updating your Windows PC with the latest software, there are times when installing a new system update slows down the performance of your device or causes some hardware to malfunction on your computer.

Windows updates can sometimes affect the speed and performance of your PC. An update can crash software or use extra RAM, slow down your PC, and as a result, make it difficult to use Windows in general.

It happens that after Windows updates, some devices on the computer stop working. In most cases, Microsoft promptly releases solutions that fix problems, but not always the user can wait some time before receiving the necessary fixes.

In this situation, it makes sense to revert to a previous Windows update, or remove a recently installed update from your device. You can uninstall the latest Windows 11 update if it’s causing problems.

As a result, you will be able to use your PC without a remote Windows update so that you can continue to do your current practical tasks on your device without interruptions or problems.

In this guide, we have provided four methods that you can use to uninstall Windows 11 updates on your computer.

How to uninstall the latest Windows 11 update – 1 way

In this guide, we use one of the easiest ways to uninstall a Windows 11 update using the Settings app.

Do the following:

1. Right click on the start menu.
2. In the context menu that opens, select Options.
3. From the left menu bar, go to the Windows Update tab.
4. Click on the “Update History” option.
5. A window will open with a list of installed updates on this computer. Scroll down and under “Related options” select “Uninstall updates”.
6. In the Installed Updates window, you will see a list of the latest updates with their installation dates.
7. Highlight the most recent update, right-click on it, and then click Uninstall.
8. After uninstalling the update, restart your computer.

How to uninstall old windows 11 updates through control panel

The Windows 11 operating system still uses the Control Panel application, with which you can perform some computer setup tasks. The Control Panel itself is intentionally hidden in the system settings, so we will tell you how to use this tool for our purposes.

Go through a few steps:

1. Click on the search icon located on the taskbar and type “control panel”.
2. Click “Open” to launch the “Control Panel” application on your PC.
3. In the Control Panel window, select the “View: Large icons” option located in the upper right corner of the application window.
4. Click on Programs and Features.
5. In the window that opens, select the “View installed updates” option.
6. In the Installed Updates window, under Microsoft Windows, right-click on the latest installed update, and then select Uninstall.
7. Reboot your PC.

How to uninstall windows updates via command line or powershell

You can also uninstall the Windows 11 update using the Windows Terminal using the built-in system tools: Command Prompt or PowerShell. To perform our operation, any of these system tools is suitable.

Do the following to remove Windows 11 update files:

1. Right click on the start menu.
2. In the context menu, click on “Windows Terminal (Administrator)”.
3. In the terminal window, you can choose the tool that suits you: PowerShell or the command line.
4. Type the following command in the terminal window, and then press “Enter”:

wmic qfe list /format:table

5. In the console window, you will see a list of the latest Windows updates along with the knowledge base number. Write down the number of the Windows update you want to remove.
6. Next, run the following command:

wusa /uninstall /kb:XXXXXXX

Replace “XXXXXXX” with the number of the most recent Windows update.

7. Follow the on-screen instructions to uninstall a Windows update using the terminal.
8. Restart Windows.

Removing a Windows 11 update from the recovery environment

You can use the Windows Recovery Environment (WinRE) to quickly get rid of a problematic Windows 11 update. In some situations, due to system failures, it will be difficult for you to use the above methods.

The Windows Recovery Environment is specifically designed to carry out recovery activities on a computer in the event of a serious problem.

If the computer does not boot, press and hold the power button to restart the device. Follow this process about 3-4 times until you see the Automatic Repair screen.

In other cases, you can enter the WinRE environment using a bootable USB flash drive with a recorded Windows distribution, or directly from a working PC.

Follow these steps:

1. In the action selection window, click on “Troubleshooting”.
2. In the Diagnostics window, select Advanced options.
3. In the list of advanced options on the computer screen, click on “Uninstall updates”.
4. In the “Uninstall updates” window, you must confirm the choice of action:

• Delete the latest fix.
• Uninstall the latest component update.

In our case, removing the latest patch is suitable.

5. In the Remove Latest Fix window, click the Remove Fix button.
6. After that, the latest Windows 11 update will be removed from the computer.
7. After a while, click on the “Finish” button to continue using your computer as usual.

Article Conclusions

If your PC has problems after installing a Windows update, you can remove the problematic software from your computer. In this situation, you can use several different methods to uninstall the Windows 11 update on your device.

Uninstalling a problematic Windows 11 update is done using the Settings or Control Panel apps, the command prompt, or Windows PowerShell using the recovery options in Windows Recovery Environment (Windows RE).