(KB5039211) refuses to install

I appreciate all the help David, I went ahead and did an in place upgrade and it fixed the issue.

Thank you again.

Updating Windows Update the way that you did in Safe Mode is the most commonly recommended fix for this issue that I can find. We can do an even deeper reset of the Windows Update, but that gets very complicated and is a lot of work. Before we try that, however, you may have a tool that can resolve your issue.

Microsoft is phasing out the Windows Troubleshooter tool and it is not found on all machines. However, it works fine, and if you have the option we can try it. In theory, what we already did should cover what it can do, but it is definitely worth a shot.

1. Choose Start and type "settings". Open Settings.
2. Open System.
3. Open Troubleshoot.
4. Open "Other troubleshooters".
5. If it exists, open the Windows Update troubleshooter and walk through the wizard.

If this does not work, then we are looking at a much deeper and more complicated Windows Update repair or resetting the computer.

Regards,

David N.

It says I can't install it in safe mode.

Let's try Safe Mode for installing the update itself.

To do this, you go back to the System Configuration Boot tab and check Safe mode, but this time choose "Network". This will boot into Safe Mode with Networking. Run the KB file that you downloaded to install manually in Safe Mode.

Regards,

David N.

Thank you!

The logs are giving us a general direction to look to as to why this update is failing, though not the exact cause. There are indications that this difficulty is related to Windows Update having difficulties with networking. That being the case we can do a reset that includes the networking components which might be giving difficulties.

Follow the commands that I gave before for reaching the Command Prompt as admin. Enter these lines one at a time to reregister the related networking components while resettings Windows Update. Note any errors, but errors are not uncommon when running this and can probably be ignored.

net stop bits

net stop wuauserv

net stop appidsvc

net stop cryptsvc

Del "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Network\Downloader\*.*"

rmdir %systemroot%\SoftwareDistribution /S /Q

rmdir %systemroot%\system32\catroot2 /S /Q

regsvr32.exe /s atl.dll

regsvr32.exe /s urlmon.dll

regsvr32.exe /s mshtml.dll

netsh winsock reset

netsh winsock reset proxy

net start bits

net start wuauserv

net start appidsvc

net start cryptsvc

Once done, reboot and see if that resolved the issue.

Regards,

David N.