This has happened to me several times and had me scratching my head until I found out that it’s a common issue and is due to a bug in the Windows Update processing (checking for new updates) stage. This is the resolution.
You need these three updates downloaded – I tend to save them with “001, 002” etc. in the names so I know in what order to run them.
x64;
3020369 “Servicing stack update”
3172605 “July 2016 Update Rollup”
3125574 “Convenience rollup update” – this takes you to the Update Catalog website to download the files.
x86;
Open an elevated/administrator Powershell prompt and enter these commands;
- stop-service wuauserv
- remove-item c:\windows\softwaredistribution\WuRedir
Run the 3020369 update, no reboot needed.
Run the 3172605 update. This will take longer and require a reboot.
Run the 3125574 update. This will take a few minutes and require a reboot.
After that last reboot, log back in and run Windows Update. This will give you a lot of updates and require a couple of reboots/Windows Update cycles to get everything installed.