Trouble installing KB2881553

By -

EDIT: The error is back :( These instructions did not help.

EDIT 2: The error is mysteriously gone :) I think Microsoft did some magic on their end. I am back on automatic updates!

For a long time, I was having trouble installing KB2881553: Update for the English Input Personalization Dictionary on Windows 8.1. These are rough notes on how I resolved it.

The problem:

  • KB2881553 is supposed to be only offered on machines that have a touch keyboard with lots of usage. I think it was offered on my desktop accidentally, because I also use a tablet PC with touch on the same Microsoft Account.
  • If you hide the update, it doesn't go away, because a new version of the file is offered on Windows Update within a few days, on the same KB number.
  • The error code was 6B2.

The solution:

  • I was mostly guided by this very helpful post.
  • The gist of the problem is that the previous update .msi cannot be found, so you have to convince Microsoft that either (i) your package is up to date, and place the correct .msi where Windows will find it, or (ii) convince Windows that no previous update version has been installed.
  • I believe I was able to accomplish (ii) by setting the following registry key: 
    [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\InputMethod\en-US\DUSTATE]
"Enabled"=dword:00000000
    Just restart after that, and check for updates, and it probably will work.
  • However, before I did that, I was trying to accomplish (i), and so I will tell what I did for that also.
    • Open IE (does not work on chrome), and go to http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=KB2881553
    • It will let you download the .msi
    • Extract it msiexec /a EnUsBing_amd64.msi /qb TARGETDIR=c:\full\path\to\target\folder
    • Use the extracted file trending-ngrams-en-us.hwrdict to replace your existing version C:\Program Files\Common Files\microsoft shared\ink\HWRCustomization\trending-ngrams-en-us.hwrdict
    • Also update the version in the registry 
      [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\InputMethod\en-US\DICTS]
"trending-ngrams-en-us.hwrdict"="16.1.1460.1"
      You can find the current version by looking at what Windows Update is offering you.
    • Make sure you also add the registry in (ii) above

Comments

  1. Unknown2:37 AM

    Thanks, this has been bugging me for a while!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Windows Task Manager is lying to you, and I don't know how to make it stop

By -
Image
If you use Windows, you might be intimately familiar with Windows Task Manager, which has a performance tab that shows the utilization percentage of various hardware in your system. Today, we're looking at CPU utilization. It looks a bit like this: The problem is that the meaning of the word utilization is very tricky. There can be multiple meanings: At the current time, with the current settings, what fraction of time is it executing instructions vs lying idle? At any time, with the most optimum settings, this CPU could practically complete a number a instructions at a certain rate. What percentage of that rate is it currently working at? I think the Windows Task Manager is currently using definition #1 above. This is useful for a person to look at the graph and understand "is there a runaway process on my system that is pegging my CPU"? However, consider the alternate use-cases: I am trying to run a long-running program, am I getting my money's worth out of this CPU...
Read more

Laptop Surprises: Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i

By -
I recently bought a Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i (Model 14ITL05). I really like it. I am trying to write down everything that surprised me about the laptop in here. These are mostly things that did not understand about the machine from the product page on Lenovo when ordering. I'll start off with the pleasant surprises: There is some sort of radar sensor on the top on the screen, in the webcam area. When I come and sit on my chair in front of the laptop, it wakes the screen and then Windows Hello logs me in with face ID. This is great! There is a feature called Battery Conservation Mode . What it does is: it pauses charging the battery when it reaches somewhere between 55 and 60%. So you can get the full performance out the CPU without adding a lot of wear on the battery. It allows the CPU to go to full performance with all the wattage coming from the AC adapter without worrying about battery wear. However, I would like to know more about this, and exactly why the battery percent...
Read more