Sundays IT: Windows Update on my Win7 machine is stuck at 0% again – 4 Steps solution

Hi everyone,

its annoying when Windows Updates just is not working and its download percentage is Stuck at 0%. I like to share my process to solve this issue – So I do the following:

  1. Opening a command prompt with elevated permissions by typing cmd in my searchbox, right-click and select “run as aministrator” or just type cmd into the box and hit CTRL+Shift+Enter.
  2. Stopping the update service by typing net stop wuauserv into the command prompt and hit enter.
  3. Deleting the contents of C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution using the windows explorer.
  4. Starting the update service by typing net start wuauserv into the command prompt and hit enter.

After that, I need to scan for new updates again (May take a while, since the cached information is gone). Downloading them should now work as expected.

DISCLAIMER: Reproduce at your own risk and without warranties.

Have a nice sunday
Sascha