Important updates not downloading (code 80070B9)

It's best to use the services.msc control panel, rather than registry edit -

Click on the Start orb
in the Search box, type Services.msc and hit the Enter key
Look in the list for the Windows Modules Installer service
double-click on its entry
and in the General tab, select Automatic from the drop-down box. CLick Apply and OK.

If you still get an error, then we have permissions problems, and will have to address those.

You need to change the service to Auto, click OK and immediately restart - do nothing else in the meantime, or it will reset the flag to manual (which is the normal setting, and reverts after the reboot).
Please try that - only after the reboot should you attempt Windows Update again

It's not supposed to hold the setting - the reboot logic sets it back to manual at the end of the startup processing, in theory.
Windows Update itself is usually the only thing that sets it to Automatic.

Please post the new windowsupdate.log file - it may show what's happening now.

This error appears in the CBS.log directly after the reboot -

Code:

2014-04-05 11:15:43, Info                  CSI    00000006 Created NT transaction (seq 1) result 0x00000000, handle @0x1f8
2014-04-05 11:15:43, Error                 CSI    00000007 (F) STATUS_RM_NOT_ACTIVE #155# from Windows::Rtl::SystemImplementation::DirectRegistryProvider::SysOpenKey(flg = (AllowAccessDenied), key = {provider=NULL, handle=0}, da = (KEY_SET_VALUE|KEY_WOW64_64KEY), oa = @0x150f140->OBJECT_ATTRIBUTES {s:48; rd:NULL; on:[28]"\Registry\Machine\COMPONENTS"; a:(OBJ_CASE_INSENSITIVE)}, disp = Unmapped disposition: 22081760 (0x0150f0e0))[gle=0xd0190005]
2014-04-05 11:15:43, Error                 CSI    00000008@2014/4/5:10:15:43.899 (F) d:\win7sp1_gdr\base\wcp\sil\merged\ntu\ntsystem.cpp(3676): Error STATUS_RM_NOT_ACTIVE originated in function Windows::Rtl::SystemImplementation::DirectRegistryProvider::SysOpenKey expression: (null)
[gle=0x80004005]
2014-04-05 11:15:44, Info                  CBS    Succesfully flushed NtfsLog.etl

It seems to relate to problems accessing the COMPONENTS hive - or at least part of it.
However, CheckSUR goes through that area pretty thoroughly. and I would have expected it to show up any problems there.

It may simply be that the transaction manager is broken...
lets try the time-honoured fix :)

Delete all files (*.*) from C:\Windows\System32\config\TxR, next run fsutil resource setautoreset true C:\


Open an Elevated Command Prompt.

At the prompt, run the following commands.

DEL C:\Windows\System32\config\TxR\*.* /q
DEL C:\Windows\System32\config\TxR\*.* /ah /q
fsutil resource setautoreset true C:\

then wait 10 minutes, and reboot - then try Windows Update