Getting error 0x80070BC2 doing Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1709 for x64-based Systems (KB4056892)

My issue was with KB4088776 too. It was driving me crazy that my computer told me it was going to 'improve Windows' by installing updates all day, every day, for a couple of months whilst having to wait until I could devote enough time to finding the cure.

I had tried all the first 6 steps in the 7 step Microsoft article (referenced earlier) multiple times. I was reluctant to re-install Windows completely and lose all my settings and apps (all my user files are safe both on my D Drive partition and in my Dropbox of course).

I had also tried all of the other solutions offered earlier in this thread (like the elevated command prompt usage and manual download & installation of the difficult KBs etc.) and, although some had worked for other people, none of them did for me.

Eventually, I noticed that a number of MS updates had installed with an erroneous date of 01/01/1601. So I started uninstalling them all. Which was fine until I got to the last one which would not show an 'uninstall' link when you highlighted it and/or right clicked on it. It turns out that MS has decided, in its wisdom, that some updates are such an integral part of the OS that they cannot be uninstalled. Just my luck to have one of those to be the corrupted one... I suspect that everything that Windows Update had tried to install since that first corrupted one has either gone in with the same wrong date (01/01/16) or simply failed due to the earlier wrong date (but only two or three times every day for two months). Although there are some tutorials around that will teach you how to uninstall these updates that MS has deemed cannot be uninstalled, I decided against trying and chose to do the re-install of Windows itself after all.

Why?

Because I knew, from having done it previously, that there actually was a way to re-install the same version of Windows 10 that you are currently using, but to do so as if it were an upgrade, thus getting the option to keep all your files and apps.

To be honest, it is scandalous that MS themselves allowed this thread to get to 10 pages before anyone suggested using the Media Creation Tool in this way.

Anyway, although the re-install using Media Creation Tool took over 12 hours (okay I went to be in the middle of it), it has certainly fixed everything for me (again) without losing any of my files, programs, settings, desktop, profile, log-in etc.

For anyone out there who is a bit unsure about trying this, I will post a link to the website that I used to guide me through the process, which is very detailed with screenshots of absolutely every step along the way. I wish I'd done this two months ago, I would have saved a lot of time in the end but I just couldn't believe that a simple snag with Windows Updates couldn't be fixed using the built-in troubleshooter or by uninstalling all the updates. It was always going to be a question of finding the time. Actually, I kind of hoped that Microsoft would roll out a fix themselves before I got to this stage, but I suppose that if Windows Update isn't working (not for the first time, I might add) then new updates that might fix it simply can't get on your computer to do their work. Catch 22!

But shame on Microsoft for leaving it's customers in the dark for so long about a) how to do a re-install without losing everything and b) not coming up with a fix for Windows Update that doesn't require such major surgery in the first place.

Here's the link to the article:

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/16397-repair-install-windows-10-place-upgrade.html

I hope this gives people, who are otherwise tearing their hair out, the confidence to actually re-install Windows to fix everything knowing that they don't HAVE TO lose everything. To be fair, even though I'd done this before, I was still hoping to find an easier (i.e. quicker) fix, alas there wasn't one but this is still better than Microsoft's official answer (step 7 in their troubleshooting article) which is to re-install from scratch and lose everything... Unbelieveable!

• This seems to have worked for me:
• Right-click on Windows key and select Command Prompt (Admin).
• Type the following commands in Command Prompt window. To execute them, press Enterafter each one. 

SC config wuauserv start= auto

SC config bits start= auto

SC config cryptsvc start= auto

SC config trustedinstaller start= auto

• Finally, restart your PC and try to install the update that was previously returning the 0x80070bc2 error.

Good Luck !

My experience is that starting the services to auto does not work reliably.

My solution was to uninstall all of the previous updates (except 2 that had no uninstall available).

Following this the Cumulative Update KB4056892 (that for me had failed only 6 times) was no longer attempted and the more recent Cumulative Update KB4090913 was installed instead.

Now my Windows 10 Pro build 1709 shows fully up-to-date.

Think of it like this - it you continuously decorate with more and more coats of paper and paint there comes a time when nothing sticks and you have to strip back to basics!

DON'T DO THIS! I got stuck on a perpetual loop and had to force a shutdown to get out of it.

I ran the commands as-suggested, and a coupl of the backed-up updates took over an hour to process, but did complete. Some of the updates that have been held up by this issue take a long time to finish.