How can I stop WUAUSERV?

Anonymous
2010-09-20T03:53:29+00:00

net stop wuauserv

The service is starting or stoping. Please try again later.

Never stops.

Product: Microsoft Fix it 50202 -- Error 1921. Service 'Windows Update' (WUAUSERV) could not be stopped. Verify that you have sufficient privileges to stop system services.


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Windows for home | Other | Windows update

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Anonymous
2015-05-03T21:30:24+00:00

I stop WUAUSERV to delete the contents in my "Software Distributions" folder. I do that when I am having problems when downloading and installing Apps from the Windows Store. 

The Proper way to do it is as follows:

Command prompt

net stop wuauserv

net stop bits

Go to C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution

Delete all the contents

Return to "Command Prompt"

net start wuauserv

net start bits

That should fix your problem.

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-06-19T19:40:45+00:00

    Thank you for the work around;

    this is a little script which would help you :D

    save the below lines into a "*.bat" file then launch it using admin mode.

    ::**********************************************

    @echo off

    set thedir=%userprofile%\desktop

    net stop wuauserv

    net stop bits

    cd C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution

    Del /F /Q /S *.*

    net start wuauserv

    net start bits

    cd %thedir%

    ::*******************************************

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-01-10T22:05:44+00:00

    Thank you. I've captured all of your last response to a file so I can refer to it when I need it. It has been a while since I did a disk cleanup, and the specific method you recommend makes sense.

    I've spent this morning using something called Windows 10 Update Assistant to bring my OS up to date. It checked the system and advised me that my OS was out of date, and then gave me an opportunity to bring it up to date. It has already completed the somewhere around 4 gig download in two hours (Satellite connection) and is now 84% into the update. If this does what it seems to be doing, updating my OS to the latest version, I may leave Windows Update disabled and just check back from time to time to see what Windows 10 Update Assistant) has to offer. The two tools seem to be doing the same thing, but the Assistant seems to be much more reliable at doing it.

    Again, thanks for your help.

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