Clear the Update Failure Information

  • Article

There is a lot of update failure information listed in Windows Update history, how can I delete it?

The Windows Update history is a log that records previous attempts of installation. If an update fails to install, an entry will be added. Even if the update has been installed successfully later, either by installing a later compiled pack that includes the failed update or by Automatic Update in the background, those logged items remain.
 
Therefore, the history is not related to the current system status. To check whether Windows is up-to-date, we can have a check with Windows Update.

Also, please understand the information of Windows Update history is in a file and if you would like to delete it, all the update history, not just the installation failures will be removed.

To clear the Windows Update history, please follow the steps below:

1. Open command prompt:

    1) Click Start, and then type cmd in the Start Search box.
    2) In the search results list, right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run as Administrator.
    3) When you are prompted by User Account Control, click Continue.

2. At the command prompt, type "net stop WuAuServ" (without quotations) and press Enter.
3. Click Start, type "%windir%" (without quotations) in the Start Search box and press Enter.
4. In the opened folder, look for the folder named "SoftwareDistribution" and open it.
5. Double click the DataStore folder and locate the DataStore.edb file. Right-click on the file, select "Rename" and type "DataStoreold" (without quotations) to rename this file.
6. Open command prompt, type in the command "net start WuAuServ" (without quotations) and press Enter to restart the Automatic Updates service.
 
Then check if the updates failure history is cleared.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    June 19, 2012
    It worked so well that not only the failed updates were cleared but even the updates that were successful were also erased.

  • Anonymous
    February 28, 2014
    Thanks a lot...................it worked 100%

  • Anonymous
    March 23, 2014
    thank U

  • Anonymous
    April 28, 2014
    thank you. it worked perfectly. but repeatedly the windows update fail to install in my computer... and i have performed this procedure several times now. should i be checking if there is something wrong with the system?

  • Anonymous
    June 20, 2014
    Thank you for this valuable information. I cleared out all the old ones and it updated on a more recent date.
    I never pays to seek knowledge but it is informative.

  • Anonymous
    December 18, 2014
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    July 13, 2015
    Completely cleared all update history on my Windows 7 machine although I was quite surprised to see the rebuilt Datastore.edb file being hundreds of Megabytes. Just rebuilding a history of updates should not require this much space!

  • Anonymous
    August 31, 2015
    Clears Update History in Windows 10. Although, the rebuilt database does not list previously installed updates. The updates remain installed. So, Update History will list newly installed updates from here on out.

  • Anonymous
    November 04, 2015
    windows update often fails. even installed update erased itself. Why. What to do.

  • Anonymous
    November 04, 2015
    windows update often fails. even installed update erased itself. Why. What to do.