Windows 7: Windows update installations continue to fail

I am running Windows 7 64bit. I have 15 updates that continue to fail. YES, I KNOW THE IMAGE SHOWS "1" - that's because I wanted to see if could actually perform one SMALL update. They're just a bunch of Security Updates for MS Office programs. DO NOT tell me to download these updates manually. THAT IS NOT A SOLUTION to a problem that will continue on forever.


I clicked "Get help with this error" which brought me to the window's help as seen in the second half of the image. These errors have NOTHING to do with the problem I am having. I have searched google and NO solution helps me.


YES, I have disabled my antivirus program already and they still fail.
YES, I am logged in as the administrator and I have all the necessary privileges.
YES, I have used Windows' crappy troubleshooter.
YES, I used Window's crappy automatic "fixer" or whatever that junk is called.


About a week ago my computer was running EXTREMELY slowly and opening just about any program that was part of office was EXTREMELY laggy. I ran disk defrag, disk clean up, and I went through a bunch of services and start up programs that I didn't need and disabled them. This increased my computer's performance and MS Office no longer lags. Could the laggyness I experienced related?

Sometimes the inability to install updates could be malware related. I'd run a full scan with the free Malwarebytes. It seems to find things other programs miss. This link compares the free version to the paid version with downloads to each.

Malwarebytes : Malwarebytes Anti-Malware PRO removes malware including viruses, spyware, worms and trojans, plus it protects your computer

Another reason for failed updates could be due to damaged or corrupt system files. You could run the System File Checker scan from an elevated command prompt (Option Two this tutorial.) If any problems are noted run the scan 3 times rebooting in between each scan. More than one scan is usually required due to system file dependencies.

SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker

If these two suggestions don't solve your update issue, you might want to troubleshoot using a Clean Startup (also called a Clean Boot.)

Troubleshoot Application Conflicts by Performing a Clean Startup

Thanks but none of your suggestions worked.

Were these the "crappy troubleshooter" and "crappy automatic fixer" you were referring to? If yes, sorry. If not, might be worth giving them a try.

Description of the System Update Readiness Tool for Windows Vista, for Windows Server 2008, for Windows 7, and for Windows Server 2008 R2

How do I reset Windows Update components?

Just a thought; do you have Microsoft Security Essentials installed?

The reason I ask is that MSE scans and updates in the background and I've had instances in the past where updates have failed because MSE is being updated at the same time, which means Windows will throw a wobbly if you try to install other updates as well i.e. an attempt at updating will fail because MSE is in the process of updating as well.

If you do use MSE you might want to disable it while you are updating your computer.

No I don't have MSE

I didn't see what update that was specifically from your snapshot. But it may be one of a couple that are known to do this quite often (.net 4.0 update?).

The solution for those is to get the update number (The KB number) from the windows update UI, then type that into google and go to the microsoft page for that update. If there is a "stand alone installer" for it. DL that and it will install and hopefully get rid of the issue.

I said "They're just a bunch of Security Updates for MS Office programs."

And going through to manually download every update from here on out is NOT A SOLUTION.

Thanks but none of these worked.

Download and run the Update Readiness Tool Download: System Update Readiness Tool for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB947821) [August 2011] - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details. Please post the log file generated after running the tool, it will be located in %WINDIR%\Logs\CBS\Checksur.log

Also please check your event log for further details about what failed. Click Start in search type Eventvwr.msc press Enter. In the left hand window of the event viewer select Windows Logs then select System in the upper middle window scroll down till you find red exclamation errors. Please post the output of a few that relate to Windows Update Fail.