Fix a 'Stuck' Windows Update That Won't Progress

Why Windows Update Gets Stuck

Windows Update relies on a chain of background services and a local cache of downloaded update packages in C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution. When an update download gets interrupted, a package becomes corrupted, or the update database (DataStore) gets into an inconsistent state, the whole pipeline can stall — you'll see a progress percentage that never moves, an installation that hangs for hours, or an update that fails and retries endlessly. The fix that resolves the vast majority of these cases is the same one Microsoft support has used for years: stop the update services, wipe the download cache, and let Windows rebuild it from scratch.

Step 1: Try a Restart First

Before anything else, restart the PC once and give Windows Update another 15–20 minutes after boot — a percentage that seems frozen is sometimes just a slow background component-installation step, particularly on cumulative updates or feature updates. If it's genuinely stuck (no progress at all for well over 30 minutes, or the same error code repeats), move on to the cache reset below.

Step 2: Stop the Windows Update Services

Open an elevated Command Prompt (right-click Start, choose "Terminal (Admin)" or search "cmd", right-click, "Run as administrator") and stop the four services involved in downloading and installing updates:

net stop wuauserv
net stop cryptSvc
net stop bits
net stop msiserver

If any of these fail with "service is not started," that's fine — it just means it was already stopped.

Step 3: Rename the Cache Folders

Rather than deleting the cache outright, rename the folders so Windows creates fresh ones automatically. This keeps the old data around temporarily in case you need to recover something, and avoids permission errors that straight deletion sometimes hits.

ren C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old
ren C:\Windows\System32\catroot2 catroot2.old

SoftwareDistribution holds the downloaded update packages and the update history database. catroot2 holds signature information Windows uses to validate those packages — resetting both together is important because a mismatch between the two is a common cause of "update fails validation" errors.

Step 4: Restart the Services

net start wuauserv
net start cryptSvc
net start bits
net start msiserver

Step 5: Recheck for Updates

Open Settings > Windows Update and click Check for updates. Windows will rebuild the SoftwareDistribution folder and re-download whatever it needs from scratch. This means a fresh download of any in-progress update, so expect it to take a while depending on your connection and how large the pending update is.

If That Doesn't Fix It: Run the Update Troubleshooter

Windows 10 and 11 both include a built-in Windows Update troubleshooter that automates a lot of the same repair logic plus a few extra checks (corrupted update history entries, misconfigured update policies, disk space issues):

1. Go to Settings > System > Troubleshoot > Other troubleshooters.
2. Find Windows Update and click Run.
3. Let it detect and apply fixes, then try checking for updates again.

Deeper Fix: DISM and SFC

If updates still won't progress, the underlying Windows component store may be corrupted. Run these from an elevated Command Prompt, in this order:

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
sfc /scannow

DISM /RestoreHealth downloads replacement files from Windows Update for anything it finds corrupted in the component store, so it needs a working internet connection. sfc /scannow then checks protected system files against that repaired component store and fixes any that don't match. This combination resolves a large share of update failures that a simple cache reset doesn't touch.

Last Resort: Reset This PC

If an update is truly wedged after all of the above — commonly seen as a boot loop into "Undoing changes made to your computer" — use Settings > System > Recovery > Reset this PC with the "Keep my files" option. This reinstalls Windows cleanly while preserving your personal files, and it resolves update corruption that survives everything else because it replaces the entire system image rather than patching around the problem.