How To Repair a Windows Update Failure

Windows Update is a Microsoft web service that allows you to download and update applications. Sometimes, these updates do not download properly, get stuck, or report errors during installation. (If the issue is, indeed, with Windows Update, your download will get stuck at 0%; if it is a different problem with the update, your installation may start and get stuck mid-way through.) Continue reading to discover how to repair a Windows Update failure.

After Windows Reinstallation

After you have updated Windows, the Windows Update client is not always up to date and is, sometimes, unable of downloading your app updates. To fix this, you will need to manually update your programs.

For more information on how to manually update your Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP programs, please see Microsoft's official page on how to download a Windows update manually.

For Windows 8, Microsoft's official page on how to manually install the Windows 8.1 update may help.

Finally, your issue may be due to the fact that Microsoft has given priority to Windows 10 for updates over Windows 7 and 8. This is not related to your computer as the upgrade to Windows 10 is a paid service.

WSUS Office Update is a free, open source program that allows you to download all updates for Windows and, then, apply them to the computer of your choosing.

WSUS Office Update is particularly useful when you have several updates waiting but are unable to download them. This tool allows you to download them all and then install them.

To download WSUS Office Update, go to the program's site.

Emptying the Windows Update cache can, sometimes, help to clear up any installation issues that you may have with with the program when trying to download updates.

N.B. The following process is not relevant if you have just reinstalled Windows and the Windows Update client is not up-to-date.

To empty the Windows Update cache in Windows 10, Windows 8, and Windows 7, you need to start by stopping the Windows Update program. To do so, press [Win] + [R] on your keyboard, then type servicesc before hitting the [Enter] key. Next, find and double-click on Windows Update, then click the Stop button.

To delete the cache, go to the C:WindowsSoftwareDistributionDownload folder, and press [CTRL] + [A] followed by [Delete] to remove all files and folders.

Now, you have to restart the Windows Update program. To do so, press [Win] + [R] on your keyboard once again, then typeservicesc, and hit the [Enter] key. Find and double-click on Windows Update, then click the Start button.

0x800F0906 and 0x800F081F Error Messages

.NET Framework updates may generate one of the following error messages: 0x800F0906, which means that the source files could not be downloaded; or 0x800F081F, which means that the source files could not be found.

To remedy this issue, please visit Microsoft's official page on updating the .NET Framework 3.5 on Windows 8, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Server 2012 R2.

Using DISM to Repair Windows Image

The DISM tool on Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 allows you to repair Windows images. If these images are damaged, it may be the cause of your update installation issues.

To begin the repair process, right-click on the Start menu, then click Command Prompt. In the Command Prompt, enter the following prompt, making sure to preserve the spaces below:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

Allow the repair to complete, then restart Windows.

Microsoft offers Windows Update troubleshooters for Windows 10 and for Windows 8/7. To download them, head to Microsoft's official website.