Windows 8.1 Update Crippling PCs With BSOD, Microsoft Suggests You Roll Back

Right on schedule, Microsoft rolled-out an onslaught of patches for its "Patch Tuesday" last week, and despite the fact that it wasn't the true "Update 2" for Windows 8.1 many of us were hoping for, updates are generally worth snatching up. In fact, I went ahead and encouraged everyone to waste no time in updating, because it seems like the smart thing to do to "keep as up-to-date as possible". Well, this is one of those times when I wish I could have peered just a little bit into the future.

Since the patch rollout, it's been discovered that four individual updates are causing random BSoD issues for its users, with KB2982791, a kernel-mode related driver, being the biggest culprit. Because of the bug's severity, Microsoft is recommending that anyone who updated go and uninstall a couple of the specific updates, or rollback using Windows Restore.

The updates that should be uninstalled are:

• 2982791 MS14-045: Description of the security update for kernel-mode drivers: August 12, 2014
• 2970228 Update to support the new currency symbol for the Russian ruble in Windows
• 2975719 August 2014 update rollup for Windows RT 8.1, Windows 8.1, and Windows Server 2012 R2
• 2975331 August 2014 update rollup for Windows RT, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2012

You can uninstall these updates in much the same way you uninstall any app; the difference is that once you're in the "Programs and Features" section, you'll need to click on "View installed updates" on the left. While it's mostly recommended that you uninstall 2982791, you may wish to uninstall the others as well, just in case.

Uninstalling the biggest culprit, KB2982791

While investigations of what went wrong go on, Microsoft has pulled the downloads for the patch family formerly known as Update 2 from its website, and likewise, it's been removed from Windows Update. So far, I haven't succumbed to this issue, so I might go against my own advice and leave the updates be, but if you've been experiencing random BSoDs since updating, you should now have your answer of what's going on.