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If Windows Update issues a Failed status for an Important security update, but the update is no longer displayed when selecting Check for updates, how is it best for users to proceed?

Note: Nothing is listed in the Restore hidden updates section of Windows Update.

From what I can tell, this happens due to a bug in Microsoft's Windows Update. Sometimes when an update fails to install, it no longer appears when the user selects Check for updates (even when performing that action moments after the update fails).

This, of course, represents a significant issue, and I am asking how best to advise users to proceed. They are using Windows 7 SP1.

So far, I have instructed them to reboot and then try selecting Check for updates within Windows Update. Unfortunately, that does not make the essential update reappear in the list of available updates.

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    Manually download the update and try running the installer for it. My guess the update was superseded by a different update hence the reason it failed then was removed.
    – Ramhound
    Jul 15, 2015 at 10:51
  • Thanks. I also thought that perhaps the update was superseded, but it was not. A manual download/update is definitely a possibility, although I would prefer to fix their Windows Update so this does not happen again and so that it reflects what is installed.
    – End Anti-Semitic Hate
    Jul 15, 2015 at 21:46
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    @RockPaperLizard I saw this problem begin occurring after this patch Tuesday. Did you first start seeing this this week too?
    – alx9r
    Jul 16, 2015 at 18:53
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    @alx9r YES! All reports of this problem began on this patch Tuesday (in July 2015).
    – End Anti-Semitic Hate
    Jul 16, 2015 at 22:54
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    @RockPaperLizard I'm seeing 0x80070490 in windowsupdate.log. Do you see any errors matching the symptoms listed here?
    – alx9r
    Jul 16, 2015 at 23:34

2 Answers 2

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2015-07-22 Update: This solution has now worked on two of two machines I have tried.

Caveat: This describes the solution that I arrived upon for my limited number of machines. While Microsoft seems to indicate that deleting the contents of the DataStore folder is supported, it is not clear to me what the side effects of that are, if any. I bet there are other causes for the same symptoms, so if you're symptoms don't point to this solution, you should probably proceed with due caution.

Some of my machines were affected by the same symptoms that you describe. After some time reboots, Window Update reported the following error:

Windows Update error "0x80248007"

The authoritative advice for that error code seems to be KB958046. I deleted the contents of C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore as per the KB article, then invoke "Check for Updates" from the control panel. That check took a rather long time (approx. 15 minutes). This makes sense because it seems to have rebuilt DataStore.edb which is about 750MB.

Once DataStore.edb was rebuilt, most of last weeks' updates appeared in "View Installed Updates" as installed. The remainder of the updates were installed by Windows Updates as usual.

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Windows 10 update always installs duplicate files but the user doesn't see it. This is the best way to remove their duplicated (repeat) files that make our storage slow. I'm using at least one year and my laptop was very good. With Office 2016 a simple step is click on OK when open a document after the "Forced uninstall" using Wise program uninstaller (wisecleaner.com). I'm adding a screenshot for reference:

uninstall windows 10 update duplicate files

image link : https://1drv.ms/u/s!AklIADQsQhMOhoUwfGoOhJtpne013Q

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