Windows update taking a long time to complete is an issue all sysadmins and Windows computer owner experience at some point. How to fix it? There are many factors that can make Windows update run slowly. Below are my top list of suggestions that genuinely do help.
A simple restart
Restart your computer. The obvious solution that most people discount but it does work. It can free resources or reset processes that are failing.
Check free disk space
Check your system drive for free space and free some up if possible. Lack of free space can cause issues; the Windows update process downloads updates and uses temporary space. Aim for at least 10GB of free space.
Check for the 0x800f0831 error
Check you don’t have the dreaded 0x800f0831 error, if so see my process for resolving.
Reset Windows update
Resetting Windows update is another method that can be used to resolve Windows update issues. See my detailed post on resetting Windows update. This process completely resets updates, removing local files so can be useful when there are corruptions with the local cache for example.
Running the command below a CMD prompt as an Administrator will reset Windows Updates
net stop bits net stop wuauserv
net stop appidsvc
net stop cryptsvc
Ren %systemroot%\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.bak
Ren %systemroot%\system32\catroot2 catroot2.bak
net start bits
net start wuauserv
net start appidsvc
net start cryptsvcSummary
In summary to fix slow Windows updates, try restarting your computer, freeing up 10GB of space on the system drive, resetting Windows Update, and checking for error 0x800f0831.
