With Fast Startup enabled, patches are not being installed via Patch Management

Last Modified

Mon Mar 23 00:51 GMT 2020

Description

  • Patches are not being installed by Patch Management
  • In the N-able RMM/N-able N-central Dashboard, the last boot time for the device doesn't appear to be correct
    • Running wmic os get lastbootuptime locally shows that the last boot time is the same as what is shown in the Dashboard
  • The Fast Startup feature in Windows 10 is enabled by default
  • Patches do install if the device is restarted

Environment

  • N-able RMM
  • N-able N-central
  • Patch Management
  • Patch Management Engine (PME)
  • Windows 10

Solution

  • With the Fast Startup (aka hiberboot, hybrid boot, or hybrid shutdown) feature enabled, windows updates might not be installed on the device after you shut down your computer
  • The reason for this is because Fast Startup is designed to help your computer start up faster after you shut down your computer
  • When you shut down your computer, your computer actually enters a hibernation state instead of a full shutdown
  • Some patch installations could require pending operations being processed during the next Windows startup that follows a full shutdown
  • Without a full shutdown, those pending operations won't be processed
  • As a result, these update installations will not complete
    • NOTE: Full shutdown only occurs when you restart a computer or when other event causes the computer to process a full shutdown
  • For more information on Fast Startup, please go here
  • For more information on how to remove this, please go here
  • To disable this via the registry please do the following:
    1. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Power
    2. Locate the HiberbootEnabled key
    3. Update value to 0
      • NOTE: Test this within your own environment first
      • Do not make changes to your customer's devices until you are happy with the results