As I said above, I tried the clean boot option and also the nls option, without success.
Microsoft technical support tried every other option that they knew.
The only solution that worked was a reinstall of Windows 8 and that is what everyone with this download problem should do. It will save a lot of time and frustration and other programmes and files need not be affected. Of course, this is only if you have an installation disc or have made one from the upgrade download,