I’m still not entirely sure how this happened (and managed to do a driver update through Windows Update after the fact), but after re-installing a clean version of Windows 11 over… whatever happened to this computer, the gaming desktop is back to being fully functional! As long as I don’t have to do this too tremendously often I’ll take my wins for what they are. I do have a copy of the Windows 11 installation ISO fresh from the official website, and I have a USB drive that I can use to boot the computers in this house up if they give me any more problems like this one was. I’m crossing my fingers that I won’t need these though.

In spite of my best efforts, it appears that the only way I can catch Windows back up to being up-to-date on the gaming desktop… is to install Windows 11 over the copy of Windows 11 that is already on here, if any of you get me. As much as I wish that this were not something I had to do because of how laborious and time-intensive things like these are and continue to be, it looks like this is going to be the only way that I can fool whatever the most recent preview update managed to trip into thinking that this computer meets a few of the onerous requirements for Windows 11 that it has not met in spite of how fast it is, causing me to have to do all of this in the first place. For one thing, I am reluctant to part with this computer because of the behemoth of a graphics card it has in it and will be taking it out of this computer when the time invariably comes to upgrade, putting this computer’s graphics card into that computer and crossing my fingers as I see no reason for it not to work. I would just like the creators of Windows to trust me when I assert that I know this computer will run Windows 11 as it… wait for it, flawlessly and smoothly has, at least up to this point.

It looks like I’m going to have to re-install Windows 11… over Windows 11, because the most recent preview update isn’t going through for some reason. And a lot of people seem to be having issues with this update.

I did not expect this to be on my Bingo card for 2026, but it seems like I have no other choice in the matter if I want to continue updating this thing. Why Windows had to mess up what had previously been a perfectly good system of updates is beyond me, and I hope to upgrade this computer at some point, but it is what it is.

I just want this computer to function for as long as it possibly can and play my kid’s games. That’s really it.

I didn’t even know that Steam boot looping was a thing… until I could not for the life of me get Steam to load so that my family could continue to enjoy the games we’ve invested into. You know, the ones we’ve paid for.

Then I had to use our Steam Deck to get back into the account, but the only reason that was successful was because I had to uninstall everything Steam-related from the desktop computer which was also the one that was giving us trouble. Several days after the fact James’ games are almost completely reloaded back onto the desktop (“gaming PC”), and this is something that I wish we never have to experience again if for no more of a reason than the expansive size of my son’s computer game collection and the length of time it involves leaving the computer on for days and nights to slowly but surely re-download, even if it’s plugged directly into the back of the modem for this reason. Times like these make me even more annoyed than I already am the fact that Steam essentially has a monopoly on the computer gaming franchise as a whole.

You may not like Steam, but at the end of the day to effectively game on the computer you need to use it.