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How to uninstall Windows 8.1 Update

The recently released Windows 8.1 Update features some changes which make it easier to work with the keyboard and the mouse. The Shutdown button on the Start screen, the title bar for Modern apps and ability to pin those apps to the taskbar are key features of this update. However, if you need to uninstall Windows 8.1 Update for some reason you can do so.

You have two options to uninstall it. The first one is the Control Panel way.

  1. Open the Control Panel
  2. Navigate to Control Panel\Programs
  3. Click the 'Installed updates' link under the 'Programs and Features' item.
    Alternatively, you can press Win+R shortcut keys on your keyboard and type the following in the run box:
    shell:AppUpdatesFolder

    This command will open Installed updates directly. See the full list of the shell commands in Windows 8.1.

  4. Uninstall the following KBs:
    KB2949621
    KB2938439
    KB2937592
    KB2932046
    KB2919355
  5. Reboot your PC and you are done

Some users reported that they are not able to uninstall those updates using the Control Panel options. If you are affected by this issue, you should try to uninstall Windows 8.1 Update using the command prompt and wusa utility. This method also works 100%.

  1. Open the command prompt as Administrator
  2. Type and execute the following commands, one by one:
    wusa.exe /uninstall /kb:2949621
    wusa.exe /uninstall /kb:2938439
    wusa.exe /uninstall /kb:2937592
    wusa.exe /uninstall /kb:2932046
    wusa.exe /uninstall /kb:2919355
  3. Reboot your PC

That's it. Now you will have Windows 8.1 without Windows 8.1 Update.

In the future, Microsoft is going to make Update 1 mandatory for all Windows 8.1 PCs so you won't be able to update your OS unless you have Update 1 installed.

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Author: Sergey Tkachenko

Sergey Tkachenko is a software developer who started Winaero back in 2011. On this blog, Sergey is writing about everything connected to Microsoft, Windows and popular software. Follow him on Telegram, Twitter, and YouTube.

11 thoughts on “How to uninstall Windows 8.1 Update”

      1. Hmm… Since Windows are less and less customizable, maybe in the future we won‘t have an opportunity to choose what updates to install at all…

  1. I HATE the new update… would lovely uninstall it but then I will have to say good bye to all the new security updates for windows in 5 weeks from now so I need to keep this piece of *** =_= They should really start thinking in terms of options for us, users, make a [censored]ing option somewhere in the control pannel which let’s us choose what kind of menu we want to display for the start screen on right mouse click, or if we want to have fast hover delay on charm bar or slow, or if we want close button on start screen or not etc. >,< Like it was in Windows XP where with couple clicks you could go back to the old Windows 98 start menu (which was ugly as *** and I don't understand why people ware using it…)

  2. I trued to remove these manually as administrator from the cmd.exe prompt – hotfix blahblah required by your computer and cannot be uninstalled.. any ideas

    1. Sadly to say if you are just upgrading to 8.1 from 8, the 8.1 update 1 is already integrated and can’t be uninstalled even through the command line.

      1. I am having the same problem. Something regarding “hotfix”. I also upgraded(or rather was forced to) form Win 8 to 8.1. What do you suggest I should do?

  3. No one from this updates is uninstallable :-( Windows need this…. i tried way1 and way2
    The tip from an other site ; install the old version vga driver is also bad on my taichi21
    all recovery-versions do not work:-( the menu from microsoft is a full fake :-(
    and a recovery medium from asus to by ….. is not avaible to this time :-(
    i think there must be a sticker on original pack ” not updateble to win 8.1 !!! ” or you have only a ultrabook with a fat black mirrow……

    greets from Austria Vienna

  4. Of the numbers listed I have only one of them KB2949621. The others are not listed. Does this mean that the numbers changed or didn’t install or the hotfix covered them all.

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