Hi guys
After long interval I am doing a Windows OS related topic, for which actually I started this blog. Once after ironing out most of the dreaded issues with Windows 7, I needed to continue blogging & whole attention was shifted to Oracle. Alas! Long years!
WSUS is Microsoft’s solution for enterprises those need to update their Windows boxes without consuming Internet bandwidth. Ie, the updates are downloaded to a centralized repository & clients receive the updates periodically without going to INTERNET. Rest you can read about WSUS from knowledge bases.
Now, we have a problem. We are a super hybrid environment where many machines are still running Windows XP, few laptops held by management running Windows 7, 8.x & rest running Windows 10. We spent months before going online with WSUS. We had lost count of times we made everything from scratches. Thank GOD, today we have a very balanced WSUS environment that does the intended job for us!
Our issues are mostly related to the updates not being installed, failing throughout the attempts & blocking new updates being distributed to the client machine that has an already failed update in the pipe.
The solution to this awkward situation is simple.
- As Administrator go to Windows Services, stop and Windows Update service & disable it. By default Windows Update service has a startup mode “Manual”.
- Go go C:\Windows (or to the Windows installation folder), located the “SoftwareDistribution” folder & rename/delete it. Don’t worry about the list of updates those appear from your regular “View Installed update history” page. You can still see the list of updates previous installed by going to “Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Programs and Features” & click on “View installed updates” menu
Once the “SoftwareDistribution” folder is renamed or deleted, get back to the Services MMC & change the start mode back to “Manual” and start the Windows Update Service.
Normal conditions, this should initiate the Windows Update service afresh without any residues from the previous failed attempts & pending updates should get installed successfully.
Hope this helps few folks out there!
regards,