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
Related Posts
- How to turn on Automatic Updates in Windows
- Disable restart now message after Windows automatic update message
- Get Updates for All Microsoft Products using Windows Update
- Choose How Windows 7 Installs Updates
- View Windows 7 Update History
Comments
13 Responses to “How to remove and reinstall all Windows Updates”
-
Pingbacks
-
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
Pingbacks
-
Cannot Run Windows Update on a Windows 7 PC? Says:
[...] you’re still having problems, make sure to check out our previous posts on removing and reinstalling all Windows Updates, troubleshooting An Update Failed to Install error, and fixing Windows Update Error Code 8E5E03FA. [...]
June 4th, 2010 at 5:36 am
That’s a very useful info… Thanks for that…
Some vista download from internet have error for update.
Code 8024D00F
Code 8024001B
Thanks.
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?
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
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.
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
@Jeff, sometimes deleting the updates one by one does not help. Something has gone wrong with the folder, etc and you have to delete all the updates and start over. I had a problem like that where something got corrupted and this was the only method that worked.
This did not solve my problem. I continued to have the update fail.
What I realised in Windows 7 is whenever an update fails, all you need to do is click on Check for updates option and windows will automatically attempt to reinstall failed updates. In my case a couple of updates that failed were successful the next time Windows Update was run.
I just uninstalled an application which was intel management and my laptop updating problem was fixed immediately.
This totally resolved my Windows Vista 64 bit failing to update each time, thanks so much for posting this fix, I sincerely appreciated it!
A Computer Tech from Illinois “Call Keith”