Windows update will not download updates - stuck at 0% downloading

Anonymous
2010-04-17T03:45:39+00:00

Everytime I start windows update it won't download the updates. The bar keeps on running but nothing downloads and the percentage stays at 0%.

Whats wrong? Anything I can do to fix this?

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Windows update

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Anonymous
2011-11-10T19:59:39+00:00

I found a solution to my problem when Windows would search for updates, but then when it started downloading it would stay at 0% forever. I started by stopping the Windows Update service (in my case the service proved to be frozen so I restarted my computer and disabled the service before it starts) and the Application Experience service. After that I went to the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder and pressed ctrl+a and shift+delete to empty its contents. Mine contained more than 70,000 files so it took a while. I started Application Experience and enabled Windows Update. I let it check for updates and try to download them. It worked perfectly.

Do not worry about deleting important windows files in this case. The contents of SoftwareDistribution is used as a cache and data for Windows Update. When Windows Update starts again it rebuilds the cache repopulating it with up-to-date versions of the files and chewing up a ton of harddisk space again.

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Anonymous
2010-04-23T13:09:40+00:00

sash123,

    If this issue is still happening, then take a look at article: Vista Update stops at stage 3 of 3 

Then let us know the results.

*** edited

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-10-03T07:13:25+00:00

    Simple to smooth it out after uninstall oem junk and failed to fully remove Norton security virus.(uninstall gone for it o probably do another restore) but I'm watching network and disk activities even though it still shows 0kb 0% dl in win update but after it say at 0% some time and it moved onto installation. Video on YouTube demonstrating a huge help Troubleshooting by watching your systems activity ::  "that's more like it,  but it shows  0kb & 0% stil! "

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-10-03T05:32:34+00:00

    Already bad news,  job first start up, hdd is maxing out still.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-10-03T05:28:21+00:00

    Five year thread. Outstanding! About ten hours of trying many of these solutions. My issue with windows 8.1 started with a random update starting on its own during a restart. This update failed and proceeded to "roll back and retry loop" always restating the computer. I let it try a few long attempts and had to power it down a few times and it finally booted. For fear of further issues I then attempted to uninstall the update but it failed to give an uninstall option. I then searched for a way to solve this issue eventually concluding this must be the way of this update by dependencie and such so I tried windows update again in the chance it would offer the update again as a sort of repair install. It only showed new updates, so I tried to download them, and it stalled out time and again. I then found this thread.  In my own trouble shooting and tweaking history I have developed the habit of watching task manager and open resource monitor and noticed there was next to zero network activity (I uploaded a video to YouTube: "gotta love Winupdate"). I proceeded to try to get windows update to even simply start is own service or open up the connection but all was failure. In frustration I just let it sit for three hours and got in a selected few updates.  Next, on to the other updates, stalled on dl again with zero network activity (ok something running did like 1kb/s every minute or three). More troubleshooting and tweaking but all failed. Conclusion, the quirk update that started it all did some damage to my system (by this time my hdd is constantly over 80% and mostly at 100% so I'm really worried... time for a restore ---> unexpected error ---> troubleshooting ---> tried older restore points ---> system stats to look like a paper weight. But there is hope,  I have that refresh partition through change of settings ---> also failed ---> troubleshooting ---> cussing ---> find safe mode fails to open ---> troubleshooting thread surfing ---> couple different boot configuration attempts ) ---> then some progress: after using msconfig to change boot settings (for the fifteenth time) with the diagnostic boot option selected and under boot tab safe mode with networking selected,  I got to safe mode, tried to restore through control panel and chang pc setting but failed then tried the advanced start up options ---> troubleshoot ---> refresh pc and got a successful restore. It just finished the restore and now time to see what struggles come with putting it back together and doing my updates.I'll post about my progress later.

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