How to Fix a Windows Update That Gets Stuck

PCs & Laptops For Dummies

Your PC might get stuck when updating Windows. The progress bar doesn't move, and restarting Windows doesn't fix the bad update. The solution is to purge the temporary update files, or cache, which clears the pipes and allows the update to proceed.

If you have difficulty getting an update to process, follow these steps:

Open an Administrator Command prompt window. Press Win+X and choose Command Prompt (Admin) from the supersecret menu. Click the Yes button to proceed.
Type this command: net stop wuauserv
Type the three words shown here, separated by spaces. Press the Enter key when you're done.The name of the Windows Update service is wuauserv. Upon success, you see the text
The Windows Update service is stopping. The Windows Update service was stopped successfully.If the service can't be stopped, you must boot into safe mode and attempt these steps again. But you're not done yet! Stopping the service is only the first task. The second task is removing the stuck files.
Type the command
cd %windir%
The command prompt changes to reflect the Windows directory (folder).
Type the command cd SoftwareDistribution
Don't put a space between Software and Distribution! The SoftwareDistribution folder is where Windows updates lurk.
Type the command del /F /S /Q Download
Those are forward slashes and the letters F, S, and Q. This command purges the files that Windows uses to update the system. It's okay to delete them, because the update has failed; Windows downloads them again when you're done.With the files purged, the final step is to restart the Windows Update service.
Type this command: net start wuauserv The following text confirms success:
The Windows Update service is starting. The Windows Update service was started successfully.
Close the Administrator Command Prompt window. The cool kids type the exit command.

These steps should resolve the issue: The files that Windows couldn't use for the update are removed. Fresh files are downloaded automatically and then installed.

About This Article

About the book author:

Dan Gookin has been writing about technology for 20 years. He has contributed articles to numerous high-tech magazines and written more than 90 books about personal computing technology, many of them accurate.
He combines his love of writing with his interest in technology to create books that are informative and entertaining, but not boring. Having sold more than 14 million titles translated into more than 30 languages, Dan can attest that his method of crafting computer tomes does seem to work.
Perhaps Dan’s most famous title is the original DOS For Dummies, published in 1991. It became the world’s fastest-selling computer book, at one time moving more copies per week than the New York Times number-one best seller (although, because it’s a reference book, it could not be listed on the NYT best seller list). That book spawned the entire line of For Dummies books, which remains a publishing phenomenon to this day.
Dan’s most recent titles include PCs For Dummies, 9th Edition; Buying a Computer For Dummies, 2005 Edition; Troubleshooting Your PC For Dummies; Dan Gookin’s Naked Windows XP; and Dan Gookin’s Naked Office. He publishes a free weekly computer newsletter, “Weekly Wambooli Salad,” and also maintains the vast and helpful Web site www.wambooli.com.