- Joined
- Oct 15, 2006
- Messages
- 14,673 (2.29/day)
- Location
- Missoula, MT, USA
System Name | Kursah's Gaming Rig 2018 (2022 Upgrade) - Ryzen+ Edition | Gaming Laptop (Lenovo Legion 5i Pro 2022) |
---|---|
Processor | R7 5800X @ Stock | i7 12700H @ Stock |
Motherboard | Asus ROG Strix X370-F Gaming BIOS 6203| Legion 5i Pro NM-E231 |
Cooling | Noctua NH-U14S Push-Pull + NT-H1 | Stock Cooling |
Memory | TEAMGROUP T-Force Vulcan Z 32GB (2x16) DDR4 4000 @ 3600 18-20-20-42 1.35v | 32GB DDR5 4800 (2x16) |
Video Card(s) | Palit GeForce RTX 4070 JetStream 12GB | CPU-based Intel Iris XE + RTX 3070 8GB 150W |
Storage | 4TB SP UD90 NVME, 960GB SATA SSD, 2TB HDD | 1TB Samsung OEM NVME SSD + 4TB Crucial P3 Plus NVME SSD |
Display(s) | Acer 28" 4K VG280K x2 | 16" 2560x1600 built-in |
Case | Corsair 600C - Stock Fans on Low | Stock Metal/Plastic |
Audio Device(s) | Aune T1 mk1 > AKG K553 Pro + JVC HA-RX 700 (Equalizer APO + PeaceUI) | Bluetooth Earbuds (BX29) |
Power Supply | EVGA 750G2 Modular + APC Back-UPS Pro 1500 | 300W OEM (heavy use) or Lenovo Legion C135W GAN (light) |
Mouse | Logitech G502 | Logitech M330 |
Keyboard | HyperX Alloy Core RGB | Built in Keyboard (Lenovo laptop KB FTW) |
Software | Windows 11 Pro x64 | Windows 11 Home x64 |
Introduction
!!!Please make sure you backup your data before proceeding!!!
Performing any repair process in this thread (and beyond) can and will be a major risk to your data and its integrity, and in some instances can make things worse. Though in many more cases, the solutions presented here will repair the issues and get most folks back on their feet.
Don't skip on backups, malware scans, data integrity scans. These could make the difference and are a good assurance to your system's ability to move forward in and out of a repair process.
As with anything, YMMV.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This thread is created in response to many users requesting what to do when there's an issue with their PC, I felt it would be nice to have a dedicated thread to specific Windows OS-related repair solutions.
Many times, myself or another experienced user here on TPU might make some suggestions such as running CHKDSK, SFC, or using DISM. I have documented these processes for my Help Desk guys at my office, and frankly if my green horns can handle these methods, I believe many of you can too! Those of us experienced in these methods are of course here to help and guide you through the process!
Since Windows 7 and Server 2008, several advanced repair options have come to light and improved even further since then. Many of these solutions can beat performing a "clean install" of your operating system, which allows you to keep running your current system, settings and files.
Also know that there is some damage that cannot be repaired, period. Which could lead to the point of a wipe and reload process, but don't feel your time is wasted, especially if you're just learning these methods. Eventually you'll be able to tell when these will and won't be helpful.
Also keep in mind, YMMV, depending on your comprehension of what's needed here, technical abilities, diagnostic abilities and the actual system condition, these methods may or may not be helpful for you. But like any good tool box or knowledge database, it doesn't hurt to have on-hand.
I hope this helps you, even if only to increase your knowledge. That's what TPU is all about, sharing what we know with others and learning new things every day.
The basics for all modern Windows Operating Systems:
!!!Please make sure you backup your data before proceeding!!!
BACKUP:
AVAM:
Scan Disk / CHKDSK and SMART:
System File Checker Utility:
System Stability
Purge Windows Update Cache
!!!Please make sure you backup your data before proceeding!!!
Performing any repair process in this thread (and beyond) can and will be a major risk to your data and its integrity, and in some instances can make things worse. Though in many more cases, the solutions presented here will repair the issues and get most folks back on their feet.
Don't skip on backups, malware scans, data integrity scans. These could make the difference and are a good assurance to your system's ability to move forward in and out of a repair process.
As with anything, YMMV.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This thread is created in response to many users requesting what to do when there's an issue with their PC, I felt it would be nice to have a dedicated thread to specific Windows OS-related repair solutions.
Many times, myself or another experienced user here on TPU might make some suggestions such as running CHKDSK, SFC, or using DISM. I have documented these processes for my Help Desk guys at my office, and frankly if my green horns can handle these methods, I believe many of you can too! Those of us experienced in these methods are of course here to help and guide you through the process!
Since Windows 7 and Server 2008, several advanced repair options have come to light and improved even further since then. Many of these solutions can beat performing a "clean install" of your operating system, which allows you to keep running your current system, settings and files.
Also know that there is some damage that cannot be repaired, period. Which could lead to the point of a wipe and reload process, but don't feel your time is wasted, especially if you're just learning these methods. Eventually you'll be able to tell when these will and won't be helpful.
Also keep in mind, YMMV, depending on your comprehension of what's needed here, technical abilities, diagnostic abilities and the actual system condition, these methods may or may not be helpful for you. But like any good tool box or knowledge database, it doesn't hurt to have on-hand.
I hope this helps you, even if only to increase your knowledge. That's what TPU is all about, sharing what we know with others and learning new things every day.
The basics for all modern Windows Operating Systems:
!!!Please make sure you backup your data before proceeding!!!
BACKUP:
This section is meant to get those not backing up, on their feet with something that can work well and reliably in multiple operating system environments. Before doing anything major to your system, you should always be backing up! Even with the best knowledge and repair tools in the business, folks can still go beyond a state of repair and lose everything. Don't be one of those people.
Backing up your system before a major issue, failure, change, or repair is always suggested. Sometimes it happens, most times it does not. Depending on how important your data is to you, there may be a cloud backup solution, a NAS/SAN solution, or an external hard drive. There are all sorts of backup methods. The one I cover here is something I use as a quick and easy solution that does not rely on Windows 7/Server Backup solutions, which while they work well in many cases have left me stranded and looking for better options. I will cover that now.
I should add, that this section does not cover long-term backup solutions, meaning not digging into nightly/daily/hourly backup methods using incremental or differential backup processes. We'll save that for another thread and another day.
Backing up your system before a major issue, failure, change, or repair is always suggested. Sometimes it happens, most times it does not. Depending on how important your data is to you, there may be a cloud backup solution, a NAS/SAN solution, or an external hard drive. There are all sorts of backup methods. The one I cover here is something I use as a quick and easy solution that does not rely on Windows 7/Server Backup solutions, which while they work well in many cases have left me stranded and looking for better options. I will cover that now.
- Download Macrium Reflect Free and install, create bootable restore media and store in a location and label properly.
- This is only needed should your hard drive fail and you want to restore the drive image to a formatted drive.
- Create an image of your OS drive or OS partition, I prefer to do the entire drive as a bare-metal backup so I can do a full restore to another drive and get back online. Depending on the situation you should decide what is best for you.
- Depending on your backup location and link speed, this could take minutes our hours.
- The backup image is mountable on any Windows system with Macrium Reflect installed, and will be mountable so you could even access the image to restore a single file if needed.
I should add, that this section does not cover long-term backup solutions, meaning not digging into nightly/daily/hourly backup methods using incremental or differential backup processes. We'll save that for another thread and another day.
AVAM:
If you want to have a thorough read on how to clean your infected system, please Solaris17's Guide: Virus Removal 101. It covers a lot of extremely useful information, and is where you should go for much more detail on this topic.
AVAM, or Anti-Virus Anti-Malware. No matter where you stand on this topic, the threat is very real. I recommend having no less than two available solutions on your PC ready-to-scan and updated. In the era of more advanced infection techniques, there's a chance you've been infected and might not even know it, there's also a chance you're one of the lucky few that doesn't experience infections or issues related to them, adware, malware, virus, etc.
The point of this section is to have a decent foundation of protection in my opinion. If you feel you have a better solution, by all means use it! What works for me, might not work for you and vice versa. I strongly support anyone to use at least two AVAM solutions regularly.
Really having anything less than Microsoft Security Essentials/Windows Defender is dangerous, and while this is a baseline AVAM solution, it is lightweight and generally easy to use and is compatible with Windows 7 and newer operating systems, coming built-in as Defender on Windows 8 and above.
So when I say you should have more than one solution, that doesn't mean that you need 2+ real-time scanning solutions. Rather one real-time scanning solution, maybe 2 if you are more prone to infections. Then the remaining utilities I treat like MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) Free where I run them weekly/monthly to update and scan my system.
Feel free to handle this aspect however you want, but do know that you're placing yourself at a greater risk without at least some sort of AVAM solution. MalwareBytes Anti-Malware is a great free and premium solution. Kaspersky, Webroot, Avast, and AVG are some others that are notable mentions for free or affordable solutions.
My initial recommendation is that you should go to Ninite, check the boxes to the AVAM solutions you want from there (and any other things you might find useful), download, install, update and scan.
Once you've confirmed your system is clean or infection-free, it is time to move on to the next steps.
AVAM, or Anti-Virus Anti-Malware. No matter where you stand on this topic, the threat is very real. I recommend having no less than two available solutions on your PC ready-to-scan and updated. In the era of more advanced infection techniques, there's a chance you've been infected and might not even know it, there's also a chance you're one of the lucky few that doesn't experience infections or issues related to them, adware, malware, virus, etc.
The point of this section is to have a decent foundation of protection in my opinion. If you feel you have a better solution, by all means use it! What works for me, might not work for you and vice versa. I strongly support anyone to use at least two AVAM solutions regularly.
Really having anything less than Microsoft Security Essentials/Windows Defender is dangerous, and while this is a baseline AVAM solution, it is lightweight and generally easy to use and is compatible with Windows 7 and newer operating systems, coming built-in as Defender on Windows 8 and above.
So when I say you should have more than one solution, that doesn't mean that you need 2+ real-time scanning solutions. Rather one real-time scanning solution, maybe 2 if you are more prone to infections. Then the remaining utilities I treat like MalwareBytes Anti Malware (MBAM) Free where I run them weekly/monthly to update and scan my system.
Feel free to handle this aspect however you want, but do know that you're placing yourself at a greater risk without at least some sort of AVAM solution. MalwareBytes Anti-Malware is a great free and premium solution. Kaspersky, Webroot, Avast, and AVG are some others that are notable mentions for free or affordable solutions.
My initial recommendation is that you should go to Ninite, check the boxes to the AVAM solutions you want from there (and any other things you might find useful), download, install, update and scan.
Once you've confirmed your system is clean or infection-free, it is time to move on to the next steps.
Scan Disk / CHKDSK and SMART:
CHKDSK, also known as Scan Disk is a CLI-based utility that scans the hard drive for errors and attempts to ID them and if told to, will also try to repair them. Below will give you a quick rundown of the most commonly used method for using this utility and also how to check the S.M.A.R.T. information for your drive(s).
First get an administrative OS access, then open the Command Line Interface or CLI with administrative privileges.
The results from these can give you an idea if you have a failing hard drive or not. Seeing a predictive failure (usually what it's called on a RAID array), or a caution/critical warning for bad sectors or many of the variables is something worth paying attention to and looking into.
If your hard drive has issues that after a CHDSK repair or two, is still needing repairs. Do yourself a favor and check its SMART reporting data. Odds are you'll see an error and odds are its time to retire the drive from critical data and OS duties if not altogether. Better safe than sorry!
First get an administrative OS access, then open the Command Line Interface or CLI with administrative privileges.
- Click start > type CMD > right click CMD.exe and run as administrator.
- Type: CHKDSK
- If errors found, type: CHKDSK /F
- Choose YES for scanning at next reboot when OS is unmounted.
- You can also do this by running the scan disk utility from the hard drive properties in the Windows GUI, I prefer to monitor the status and stats the CLI version provides.
- Once back in, run CHKDSK again, and also consider checking your OS drive with a SMART utility like Speccy or Crystal DiskInfo.
If your hard drive has issues that after a CHDSK repair or two, is still needing repairs. Do yourself a favor and check its SMART reporting data. Odds are you'll see an error and odds are its time to retire the drive from critical data and OS duties if not altogether. Better safe than sorry!
System File Checker Utility:
The System File Checker Utility or SFC as I will refer to it moving forward is a very useful utility that is best utilized in CLI. It will scan your OS installation, confirm system files and try to repair any corruptions or errors found.
Here on TPU and many other technical and IT help forums you will see the command SFC /ScanNow recommended. This is for good reason, as it will scan and attempt to repair any issues with the operating system files it may find. The utility can take anywhere from 5-30+ minutes depending on drive, data and speed.
There are many other commands used in conjunction with the SFC utility, but to be honest the commonly suggested command will be what you'll want to use in most cases. Please review the link at the beginning of this section to review SFC more in-depth. To run SFC properly, please follow the below:
Open an elevated (run as admin) Command Prompt or PowerShell window.
Type and run: SFC /Scannow
Wait for it to run. There are several messages that will be posted after the scan has completed, and two of them can look similar if you don't read them carefully. I will give a quick summary of each message:
Here on TPU and many other technical and IT help forums you will see the command SFC /ScanNow recommended. This is for good reason, as it will scan and attempt to repair any issues with the operating system files it may find. The utility can take anywhere from 5-30+ minutes depending on drive, data and speed.
There are many other commands used in conjunction with the SFC utility, but to be honest the commonly suggested command will be what you'll want to use in most cases. Please review the link at the beginning of this section to review SFC more in-depth. To run SFC properly, please follow the below:
Open an elevated (run as admin) Command Prompt or PowerShell window.
Type and run: SFC /Scannow
Wait for it to run. There are several messages that will be posted after the scan has completed, and two of them can look similar if you don't read them carefully. I will give a quick summary of each message:
- Scan successful and no issues found.
- Scan found and fixed issues.
- Scan found and was unable to fix some or all issues.
- If you end up with the last option, you can run a command to locate the log file if you closed the CLI window without confirming the path to the log file.
- findstr /c:"[SR]" %windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log >"%userprofile%\Desktop\sfcdetails.txt"
- Review list, and go to the link at the start of the SFC section for more advanced usage to replace those files.
- IF you are on Windows 8 or newer, I'd recommend using DISM OS repair option first. Please scroll down to those sections.
System Stability
System stability testing and validation is a very largely argued topic. If you have a preferred method, then by all means use that to confirm system stability. I will share some of the software and tests I use. First let's get you some links so you can download while you're reading this section.
Stress/Stability Test Software:
Monitoring Software:
As you notice, I only have three software suites, and while there are literally dozens of options, these ones I find the most useful for stability testing. Feel free to use your preferred solutions here instead, odds are you have no need for this section if you're familiar with stability testing. But I hope you find it useful either way!
OCCT Testing
Monitoring
You should be watching what your temperature results are when stress testing. Using the software I listed above makes sense and usually is close enough to be safe without a lab full of sensors and diagnostics equipment, at least for most cases. Most are pretty self explanatory or well documented, so I will not break each one down unless requested to do so.
Another useful monitoring tool is built-in to Windows and has been for years, it is called Resource Monitor. There are several ways to access it, but I'm only going to list the one I use the most. Feel free to comment if you want other methods listed.
The most frequent thing I use it for is CPU usage and Disk queue length. Then expand the Storage section. .5-1.0 is busy, over 1.0 is system degrading as the data drive is failing to keep up with requests. This causes severe system slowdowns and can occur during scans of system repair and AVAM, updates, games, data transfers from faster sources, or multiple data-intensive requests, among others.
You could definitely find some issues within resource monitor that could attribute to stability issues with your system, and with it being built-in to all versions of Windows discussed in this thread, why not use it?
Once you've gone through all these tests, you should be in some form of stability.
Stress/Stability Test Software:
Monitoring Software:
As you notice, I only have three software suites, and while there are literally dozens of options, these ones I find the most useful for stability testing. Feel free to use your preferred solutions here instead, odds are you have no need for this section if you're familiar with stability testing. But I hope you find it useful either way!
OCCT Testing
- Linpack CPU Test - 1-3hrs with 90% ram utilization and all logical cores, but NOT AVX. If fail, try again with with 10MB memory, use custom, 10MB is minimum you'll be able to set to once adjusted. If still fail, adjust CPU and MB settings, adjust RAM settings, OC settings, and create a thread for help.
- If stable then test GPU:3D (if an issue or concern), 1-3hrs. I usually run default shader complexity. No FPS limit. If fail, re-try with error check. This will run a non-moving rendering repeatedly and confirm if anything is drawn incorrectly. Look into GPU drivers, OC and hardware issues. Create a thread for help if needed.
- If stable then test PSU and mirror Linpack and GPU settings. This test will create a lot of heat and is still one of the heaviest tests I run on a PC. Really brings out the instabilities...which is what I want it to do! This test takes the previous two tests and combines them. Both tests can pass independently and this test can fail, even with a good PSU. It has a harder current pull because of the loads...even then compared to the toughest games I've used for testing. But if you want a truly stable system, passing this test for me makes that easier to stand behind by far. This test consistently lets me seek out unstable PC's where most tests pass them. If you have issues, start a new thread and repeat previous tests, adjust, OC, settings, etc.
- Note: The CPU test includes AVX testing, this will overvolt your CPU to run these tests which can create excessive heat output and potential dangerous voltage levels when overclocking. While AVX is becoming semi-common in games, it doesn't push the CPU as-hard-as this test, even with the extra voltage applied temps have yet to come close to this test with AVX on. YMMV.
- If all pass then move onto Realbench.
- Stress Test mode, 1, 2 or 4 hours. Up to 16GB or whatever your RAM amount is. Click start.
- You will know either by a BSOD, hard crash/reboot, or failure message in the results window if there was a fail, otherwise it will show each pass that is successful. This test also does a good job of stressing out a CPU and GPU.
- This tests pushes a variety of things while testing your system, but I'd look at the CPU, MCH and RAM first if a stability issue arises, I'd also double check the GPU.
- If the above two tests are failing but you can't get to the bottom of it or have some really odd crashes happening, it is always a good idea to test your RAM. Keep in mind that everything on your PC that runs must be loaded into RAM. Your OS kernel, drivers, apps, programs, games, etc.
- I prefer to create the bootable USB option, but use the media that works best for your application and boot to it.
- I choose to change the option in the test to use all threads in parallel so that the test is faster and more stressful. This is optional but I have found it to bring out memory errors more than single-threaded testing. Possibly because some of the CPU's I've tested have the MCH built-in.
- Let the test go through 1-3 complete cycles. This can take HOURS to do, but be patient.
- Start testing with all memory modules in-use, again 1-3 complete cycles.
- If fails, remove one module test again.
- if fails, remove module or of only have 2 sticks in use, swap sticks and test again.
- Repeat until all sticks have been tested, you might even see more than one or all sticks fail. In these cases I keep a spare, cheap 2GB stick on-hand to test with and confirm its not an MCH or board issue.
Monitoring
You should be watching what your temperature results are when stress testing. Using the software I listed above makes sense and usually is close enough to be safe without a lab full of sensors and diagnostics equipment, at least for most cases. Most are pretty self explanatory or well documented, so I will not break each one down unless requested to do so.
Another useful monitoring tool is built-in to Windows and has been for years, it is called Resource Monitor. There are several ways to access it, but I'm only going to list the one I use the most. Feel free to comment if you want other methods listed.
- Right click blank area of task bar, choose Task Manager.
- Choose Performance tab, then click Open Resource Monitor.
The most frequent thing I use it for is CPU usage and Disk queue length. Then expand the Storage section. .5-1.0 is busy, over 1.0 is system degrading as the data drive is failing to keep up with requests. This causes severe system slowdowns and can occur during scans of system repair and AVAM, updates, games, data transfers from faster sources, or multiple data-intensive requests, among others.
You could definitely find some issues within resource monitor that could attribute to stability issues with your system, and with it being built-in to all versions of Windows discussed in this thread, why not use it?
Once you've gone through all these tests, you should be in some form of stability.
Purge Windows Update Cache
So here's the deal, sometimes your copy of Windows will have update issues. This could be from servers, network connections, bandwidth caps, updates themselves, or a corrupted update cache that causes repetitive failed updates. Another issue is if updates keep occurring and consuming excessive disk space that you could really utilize elsewhere.
So what is a quick and effective way to get around this? In many cases, purging the update cache and rebooting the OS will get things back on track. Please follow the below in order to perform this procedure and confirm if this resolves your update issues.
The Manual GUI Method
The first method I will tell you about is how to do this in the Windows GUI. Be warned, stopping and starting the specific service in this task is best done in command-line. I will tell you how to do that later.
First up is to make sure you can view hidden files and folders.
The Command-Line Method
There are two ways to go about this, either type each of these commands out or create a batch file to run which runs the commands. Depending on how often you'll use this either way will have its preferred application.
If you're familiar with the command-line interface (CLI) within DOS, CMD or PowerShell (PS), then skip to the commands below. Otherwise please continue on from here.
First thing you need to do is run CMD.exe as administrator. If it doesn't say Administrator: Command Prompt in the title bar of the window, try again. Easiest way to access and run CMD in Windows 7, 8 and 10 is to click the Windows button or key, type CMD. The program's full name is Command Prompt in search queries.
Once you have that handled, it is time to run some commands to purge the Windows update cache.
Type or copy and paste each command line individually, pressing Enter in between them to execute.
What does each command do?
I won't get into what all can be done with a batch file, but rather give you a quick and dirty way to make the above commands into a batch file.
A utility I was shined onto that has a lot more to do than simply purging Windows Update works great for resolving Windows Update issues. As such I wanted to share the link here.
Microsoft calls the utility the Reset Windows Update Agent. You can download and read more about it here. They even provide all the different scripts that are ran within the file for reference. I can also confirm it works with Windows Server 2008 R2, 2012 R2 and 2016.
I will include a brief introduction to the utility for those interested.
First, extract the ZIP file, right click on ResetWUEng.cmd and run as admin. You'll be met with a window asking if you should proceed and warnings for using the utility. Press Y to continue.
Now you'll be met with a screen that has 16 menu options, as shown below.
What I would suggest is starting with options 2 and 3. Use 5-8 for repairs to Windows Updates and other components. 9-11 are the more serious repairs, but when they're needed you'll be glad they're there.
All the options have uses, but really for what we're doing here the ones I listed will likely be most useful.
TPU Suggested Links
Some other users have provided great links and helpful information. Please feel free to review them.
These methods should all provide you with useful means for repairing and resolving quite a few Windows Update issues and corruptions and should get your OS back to updating normally. There have been some changes with how Microsoft is delivering updates which has created some issues with users getting updates. If you need help with that, look here.
So what is a quick and effective way to get around this? In many cases, purging the update cache and rebooting the OS will get things back on track. Please follow the below in order to perform this procedure and confirm if this resolves your update issues.
The Manual GUI Method
The first method I will tell you about is how to do this in the Windows GUI. Be warned, stopping and starting the specific service in this task is best done in command-line. I will tell you how to do that later.
First up is to make sure you can view hidden files and folders.
- Open File Explorer/Windows Explorer.
- Go to View > Folder Options.
- Select Show Hidden Files, Folders and Drives...
- Click Apply.
- Click start, type services and open services management.
- Locate the Windows Update service, right click and choose Stop.
- Minimize services window.
- Type in Start Menu search or open Windows/File Explorer and navigate to the following location.
- C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download
- Delete all contents.
- Bring Services MMC back up.
- Start the Windows Update service.
The Command-Line Method
There are two ways to go about this, either type each of these commands out or create a batch file to run which runs the commands. Depending on how often you'll use this either way will have its preferred application.
If you're familiar with the command-line interface (CLI) within DOS, CMD or PowerShell (PS), then skip to the commands below. Otherwise please continue on from here.
First thing you need to do is run CMD.exe as administrator. If it doesn't say Administrator: Command Prompt in the title bar of the window, try again. Easiest way to access and run CMD in Windows 7, 8 and 10 is to click the Windows button or key, type CMD. The program's full name is Command Prompt in search queries.
Once you have that handled, it is time to run some commands to purge the Windows update cache.
Type or copy and paste each command line individually, pressing Enter in between them to execute.
Code:
net stop wuauserv
CD %Windir%
CD SoftwareDistribution
DEL /F /S /Q Download
net start wuauserv
What does each command do?
- net stop wuauserv
- Stops the Windows Update Service.
- CD %Windir%
- Change directory (CD) to the Windows default directory (C:\Windows).
- CD SoftwareDistribution
- Change directory to the SoftwareDistribution directory located in the current directory.
- DEL /F /S /Q Download
- Delete command to delete the Download folder and all files within.
- /F forces the deletion of read-only files.
- /S forces the deletion of all files from subdirectories.
- /Q is quiet mode, no prompts for deleting files.
- net start wuauserv
- Starts Windows Update Service.
I won't get into what all can be done with a batch file, but rather give you a quick and dirty way to make the above commands into a batch file.
- Right click on your desktop, choose new, choose text document, name it whatever you want... UpdatePurge works too.
- Edit the document, copy and paste the following commands into the document.
Code:
net stop wuauserv
CD %Windir%
CD SoftwareDistribution
DEL /F /S /Q Download
net start wuauserv
- Then go to File > Save As.
- Under Save as Type, choose All Files (*,*).
- Change UpdatePurge.txt (or whatever name you used.txt) to UpdatePurge.bat.
- Right click the new batch file on your desktop and run as administrator. Done deal!
A utility I was shined onto that has a lot more to do than simply purging Windows Update works great for resolving Windows Update issues. As such I wanted to share the link here.
Microsoft calls the utility the Reset Windows Update Agent. You can download and read more about it here. They even provide all the different scripts that are ran within the file for reference. I can also confirm it works with Windows Server 2008 R2, 2012 R2 and 2016.
I will include a brief introduction to the utility for those interested.
First, extract the ZIP file, right click on ResetWUEng.cmd and run as admin. You'll be met with a window asking if you should proceed and warnings for using the utility. Press Y to continue.
Now you'll be met with a screen that has 16 menu options, as shown below.
What I would suggest is starting with options 2 and 3. Use 5-8 for repairs to Windows Updates and other components. 9-11 are the more serious repairs, but when they're needed you'll be glad they're there.
All the options have uses, but really for what we're doing here the ones I listed will likely be most useful.
TPU Suggested Links
Some other users have provided great links and helpful information. Please feel free to review them.
- Reset-WindowsUpdate.ps1 - Powershell-based script to reset Windows Update found by @Drone
These methods should all provide you with useful means for repairing and resolving quite a few Windows Update issues and corruptions and should get your OS back to updating normally. There have been some changes with how Microsoft is delivering updates which has created some issues with users getting updates. If you need help with that, look here.
Last edited: