Error Code 80248015

I resolved the issue by deleting all the files in the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder and restarting.

I tried checking for updates last night and Windows Update wouldn't come up and then it seemed to of taken out the Windows Explorer.

Do you mean that I should have set only Windows Update to "never update" and then got it running manually again to fix it without reset date ? I tried but nothing happened for a long time, nor got I an error code. Later I found in C:/Windows/SoftwareDistribution a ReportingEvents log file with "Windows Update Client failed to detect with error 0x8024402c" (2017-12-03 10:30:02:608+0100) and "Windows Update Client failed to detect with error 0x80248015" (2017-12-04 01:06:26:519+0100). At these dates and times the new authcab.cab was issued but not yet released for any reason since I didn't get it by a self-update of Windows update; may be it occured in some régions, not globally.

I did the following to recover Windows 7 Update:

1.  Reset the computer date to 2 Dec 2017.

2.  Ran the 'Fix Windows Update errors' program from the Microsoft support site.  Everything showed 'fixed'.

3.  Tried Windows Update again - it worked and installed 3 'important' updates.

4.  After the computer had restarted, I reset the correct date.

5.  All now appears to be back to normal.

I had the same problem and just  found an easy fix that worked for me.  (12-29-17)

check out the attached blog  link.  The fix that worked for me was at the end of the article,

(see the  workaround #2, basically disabling the automatic updates and then reenabling them)

The steps are described with screen shots.

https://borncity.com/win/2017/12/04/windows7-error-0x80248015-in-update-search-dec-4-2017/