How to remove and reinstall all Windows Updates

Posted on September 10, 2008 at 5:25 am

Have you ever come across a situation where Windows Update gives you the message “An update failed to install” and gives you no other option? This can happen for a host of reasons and the first thing you want to do is search that phrase along with the update that failed to install.

There are some occasions, however, where you have to start from scratch and reinstall all Windows Updates from the beginning. Other than reformatting your computer and then installing every update again, you can also delete the folder that contains the updates and update history.

Once you delete the automatic updates folder, the next time you check for updates or go to the Windows Update website, all updates will be re-downloaded and re-installed.

How to reinstall all Windows Updates

First, you have to turn off the Automatic Updates and BITS service in Windows. To do this, click on Start, then Run and type in services.msc and press OK.

Next, right-click on Automatic Updates service and click on Stop. Right-click on Background Intelligent Transfer Service and click on Stop.

Now we can delete the folder that contains all of the Windows updates applied to your computer currently by navigating to:

C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution

Note that this will delete the Update history and ALL updates will be reinstalled on your computer. Note that this will not harm your computer in any way.

Now you can go ahead and restart the two services that we stopped earlier. If you are running Windows Vista, type in Windows Update in the search box and press Enter.

Windows Updates should show you that you’ve never checked for updates before, so go ahead and click “Check for Updates” to begin re-installing all updates.

In Windows XP, make sure Automatic Updates is set to “Automatic (recommended)” via the Control Panel and then visit the Windows Update website to begin installation of the updates.

Hopefully, once the initial updates are reinstalled, your failed updates will install also. Enjoy!

» Filed Under Computer Tips

Comments

7 Responses to “How to remove and reinstall all Windows Updates”

Pavan Kumar said on : September 10th, 2008 at 9:10 am

That’s a very useful info… Thanks for that…

mmg1818 said on : September 27th, 2008 at 6:09 pm

Some vista download from internet have error for update.

Code 8024D00F

Code 8024001B

Thanks.

AJ said on : November 12th, 2008 at 8:43 am

My Mother-in-law pulled out a program disc halfway through installation, which jammed up windows installer. I fixed that by finishing the installation (putting the disc back in), but during the time she had the problem, which was right when she got the computer, 97 or so Windows Updates downloaded to the computer, but couldn’t install.

These files include everything from the service packs (which are supposed to install by themselves), to critical updates. The computer is very slow at startup, and wants to install the files at shutdown.

I just want to find the file where the downloads are sitting, wipe them out, and start again. Any ideas?

Purplepixii said on : January 19th, 2009 at 5:33 pm

Wow! After 3 hours searching for a fix and trying various fixes that were as useful as a chocolate fire guard I came across this site.

Your suggestions worked for me – yipppppppppeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Thankyou!
x

brownhound said on : February 1st, 2009 at 2:12 pm

Wanted to give you a big thanks on this. I was having problems with Windows Update Agent on a Vista Basic machine. wuauserv.exe was using high cpu cycles of about 50%. After digging around for a couple of hours, I tried reinstalling the update agent, reinstalling .net framework, and a host of other things. Your solution worked – THANK YOU! Your site is getting bookmarked.

Jeff said on : October 4th, 2009 at 4:58 am

Interesting and useful – thank you … but I think you can achieve same in XP by going to “Change or Remove Programs”, tick “show updates” – then delete them one by one ! This should be the same as deleting the contents of Windows\SofwareDistribution … but then also the updates are lsited in Windows\ folder directly by KB number – if these are not “deleted” I think/guess you could end up with the names doubling ?

Jeff

Troubleshoot Windows Update fails to install updates Says:

[...] ALL else fails, you can try to delete all Windows Update and reinstall them from scratch. Note this is not the same thing as performing a repair installation, this will delete [...]
November 26th, 2008 at 5:23 am