After an improper shutdown, crash, power failure or something gone wrong with your Registry, Windows Update can fail to work properly. It may fail to check for updates or fail to install them, or sometimes, it cannot be opened at all. Here is how to reset the state of Windows Update and its components if it stops working in Windows 10.
- Open the Start menu and type: troubleshooting and press Enter.
- Click "Fix problems with Windows Update" under the System and Security section
- Click "Run as administrator" in the Troubleshooter's dialog and complete the Windows Update troubleshooter. See if Windows Update works properly.
If Windows Update still does not work, you need to reset and re-register all components of the service. Here is how.
First, start an command prompt as administrator.
Type the following commands one by one:
sc stop bits sc stop wuauserv sc stop appidsvc sc stop cryptsvc
This will stop a number of services related to Windows Update. It is required to re-register components as described below.
Windows Update is using a lot of DLL files which need to be registered properly. If any one of these DLLs lack proper Registry entries, it can cause completely random issues as mentioned earlier. To register them properly, you need to type these commands in an elevated command prompt:
regsvr32.exe /s atl.dll regsvr32.exe /s urlmon.dll regsvr32.exe /s mshtml.dll regsvr32.exe /s shdocvw.dll regsvr32.exe /s browseui.dll regsvr32.exe /s jscript.dll regsvr32.exe /s vbscript.dll regsvr32.exe /s scrrun.dll regsvr32.exe /s msxml3.dll regsvr32.exe /s msxml6.dll regsvr32.exe /s actxprxy.dll regsvr32.exe /s softpub.dll regsvr32.exe /s wintrust.dll regsvr32.exe /s dssenh.dll regsvr32.exe /s rsaenh.dll regsvr32.exe /s cryptdlg.dll regsvr32.exe /s oleaut32.dll regsvr32.exe /s ole32.dll regsvr32.exe /s shell32.dll regsvr32.exe /s wuapi.dll regsvr32.exe /s wuaueng.dll regsvr32.exe /s wups.dll regsvr32.exe /s wups2.dll regsvr32.exe /s qmgr.dll regsvr32.exe /s wudriver.dll
Now, it is a good idea to reset your network configuration. It might be broken by a virus, by some dangerous tweaker app or even by another user on the PC you are using. WARNING. You might need to re-configure the proxy server if you are using one and also the IP configuration if you are using any special settings. The following commands can be used for that purpose:
ipconfig /flushdns netsh winsock reset netsh winsock reset proxy
Next, let's clear Windows Update cache files, so the operating system will be able to re-download the required updates. This helps to resolve any issues with corrupted updates.
rmdir %systemroot%\SoftwareDistribution /S /Q rmdir %systemroot%\system32\catroot2 /S /Q
This should be enough to fix Windows Update in Windows 10. Start the services you stopped earlier using this command:
sc start bits sc start wuauserv sc start appidsvc sc start cryptsvc
It is a good idea to restart Windows 10.
That's it. Now Windows Update should work as expected in Windows 10.
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My Windows 10 update service was stuck on stopping and I couldn’t download any new updates. Even though I couldn’t fully follow the steps because the service still had files locked I was able to re-register the files in the regserv32 files list. I think this is what fixed my problem.
Works great . Thank you
Hi there, my pc windows 10 hom pr 64 bits, in the middle of March start to looking for updates every 24 hours no updating and again check and no updates available. Them i try microsoft troubleshooting tool and came out with
windows update service registration are missing or corrupt then try elevated commands and it said that everything
is fine, that good to go but still in the same issue will you please help me thank you.