Thank you for the help, S.Sengupta!
Your directions helped tremendously; however, I did have to do several additional steps to get it to work. I will post the additional steps and an explanation will follow.
NOTE: These are the steps I took for my computer. Your computer may not have all the services in the following steps; If this is the case, proceed to the next step.
- Run "services.msc" by typing "services.msc" in Start Search and pressing Enter.
- Find "Windows Update Service."
- Right-click "Windows Update Service" and select Stop.
- Find "Update Orchestrator Service."
- Right-click "Update Orchestrator Service" and select Stop.
- Find "Dell SupportAssist."
- Right-click "Dell SupportAssist" and select Stop.
- Find "Alienware SupportAssist Remediation."
- Right-click "Alienware SupportAssist Remediation." and select Stop.
- Locate C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution
- Inside SoftwareDistribution folder locate the "DataStore" and "Download" folders and delete the contents of both folders.
- Inside SoftwareDistribution folder, press Ctrl+Shift+N to create a new folder, if prompted, click Continue and Yes. Name the folder "Backup", click Yes if prompted.
- Click and hold on the folder "PostRebootEventCache.V2" to drag it into the folder "Backup"; Repeat this with the folders "ScanFile", "SLS", and the file "ReportingEvents". If prompted, click Continue and Yes.
- Reboot your computer.
- Once rebooted, run "services.msc" by typing "services.msc" in Start Search and pressing Enter.
- Find "Windows Installer Service"
- Right-click "Windows Installer Service" and select Start.
- Run Windows Update. You may find that you now have several additional updates to install.
If Windows Update will not run:
- Solution A:
- Return to Steps 1 through 5, however; Select "Start" instead of "Stop" for each of the services.
- Attempt Windows Update again.
- Solution B:
- Repeat Steps 1 through 6
- Locate C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Backup from Step 7 and move the contents back to their original location in the SoftwareDistribution folder. Click Continue and Yes if prompted.
- Repeat Steps 8 through 11. (You may need to repeat Solution A after performing Solution B).
This is my first post, and I hope it helps someone else in the community. I am here thanks to S.Sengupta's helpful post.
Some things that I found and tried while troubleshooting this issue:
I attempted to install the update directly from Microsoft without success. I also attempted to troubleshoot the windows updater a couple of times without any resolution (although it said that it did find and fix an issue with the updater).
I could not delete any of the files from SoftwareDistribution until I stopped the Windows Update Service. I was able to delete most of the files after stopping the service, but a few could not be deleted because they were in use. I tried to restart and run the update with the problem still present. I discovered that the two folders were now repopulated with several of the items that had been deleted before the restart and update attempt. Upon further investigation, I found that there were three more services running that appeared to be associated with updates:
- Update Orchestrator Service
- Dell SupportAssist
- Alienware SupportAssist Remediation
I stopped these services and was successful at deleting the contents of the folders. I rebooted and the update continued to give the same error. I decided to clean out all of the folders/files in the SoftwareDistribution folder, but first I backed it up.
I had also read that the firewall may need several ports opened to resolve this specific issue, so simply disabled the firewall as follows:
Open:
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Administrative Tools\Windows Defender Firewall with Advanced Security
- At the top of the left column, right click on Windows Defender Firewall
- Click properties.
- Under Domain Profile find "Firewall State:" and select off.
- Repeat this for Private Profile if you are on a private network or are unsure.
- Repeat this for Public Profile if you are on a public network or are unsure. (Use caution as this does greatly reduce your security while disabled.)
After this, I did a reboot, went into services and manually started Windows Installer Service, and ran windows update with the issue now resolved. Unfortunately, I cleaned out the SoftwareDistribution folder and disabled the firewall without attempting to update in between. I'm confident that the firewall was not the issue, but I can't be certain. I did find it interesting that upon fixing the error with this single update, I suddenly had several important or urgent type of updates that seemed to appear out of thin air.
Good luck and Thanks again S.Sengupta!