Problem with Windows Update?

To remain secure and prevent new attack vectors it it important to keep you Windows installation up to date.

If you encounter problems when trying to use Windows Update, such as error 80070003, 80248007 or 80072ee2, try downloading and running the Windows Update Troubleshooting Wizard from Microsoft.

This is how it looks when you run it:

Clicking Next and waiting for a while gives you a result page:

Get the troubleshooting tool here:
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=231149

Try to perform a Windows Update again after running the Wizard. I hope this solved your Windows Update problem. Feel free to comment below if this helped you.

Another solution to the problem might be clearing the local Windows Update-cache.

This is done in three simple steps:

1. Make sure that Windows Update service is stopped
2. Delete contents of two folders
3. Start the Windows Update service

Note that these steps also remove the installation history of Windows Update. Not the patches themselves but the history.

You can still see what patches are installed by running the PowerShell command Get-HotFix or the MIC query “wmic qfe”.

You need to have local administrator permission for this.

1. Make sure that Windows Update service is stopped
Start PowerShell as administrator (in case you need to stop the service)
Run the following command:

Get-Service "Windows Update"

If the Status is Stopped, proceed to 2.
If the Status is Running, run the following command:

Stop-Service "Windows Update"

2. Delete contents of two folders
I’m assuming you have installed Windows on the driveletter C:, change accordingly otherwise.

Delete all files in the folder C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore
Delete all files in the folder C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download

3. Start the Windows Update service
If the service was started, start it again by running the following command:

Start-Service "Windows Update"

Try to perform a Windows Update again. It might take a bit longer than normal, since the local cache must repopulate.

If it did not help, repeat the steps, but delete all content in the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder.