SOLVED Update & Security Issues

[Graeme McKenzie]

I have a windows 10 problem which has raised its head over the past 2 days or so.
It involves the update & security screen, I basically can't access it. When I select all settings and select update & security the window freezes and I cannot access any of the options. I have tried using the run command and typing ms-settings:windowsupdate but I get the same result.
I have also tried running the windows update troubleshooter app to no avail
If I can get the windows store to open I can see I have apps requiring updates but they are stuck on 'starting download'
Then to cap it all I'm having issues when closing down the PC, when I attempt to do so I get error messages saying taskhost is running close anyway or cancel, if I select close anyway it doesn't shut down but sends me back to the PC home page.

Not sure where to go with this one and would appreciate any help.

Thanks

 

[Regedit32]

Hi Graeme,

Welcome to the forum.

From what you are describing it is possible an update has not completely unloaded and installed and thus is preventing other pending updates beginning. Sometimes, shutting down the computer completely, then restarting it a few times in a row will allow Windows to sort that out and things will improve.

Failing that, then the next option is to manually turn off the update service and bits service, then either delete or rename the SoftwareDistribution folder which stores windows updates and then reboot computer so the services can start again and all going well you'll be able to get your updates up and running properly.

To do this manually:

• Right-click on Start
• Left-click on Command Prompt (Admin)
• When the User Account Control dialog pops up click Yes
• In the command prompt window that opens type the following:
  
  

  net stop wuauserv

  
  Press Enter key to execute.
  
  

  net stop bits

  
  Press Enter key to execute
  
  Note: If these Services were started prior to entering the command above you ought to see the message along the lines 'The Windows Update Service is stopping. The Windows Update Service was stopped successfully' after pressing Enter key and likewise for the Backgrount Intelligent Transfer service (bits). If the service is all ready stopped then you'll get a message informing you the service is not started. Either way these are the results you want.

• Having stopped these two services - or made sure they are stopped - you can now open File Explorer and navigate to C:\Windows. Inside the Windows folder scroll down and locate the SoftwareDistribution folder. Right-click on this folder and either select delete or rename then rename the folder to SoftwareDistribution.old
  
  Once deleted or renamed (your choice) shut down your computer completely. After a few seconds restart the computer and log back to the Desktop. All going well you will be able to access Updates & security via Start > Settings and then check for updates.

The other issue you alluded to was a hanging taskhost when you wish to shutdown computer. This can occur when the System hybernates tasks rather than completely closing them. The idea behind this is to allow for faster shutdown and startups for commonly used apps. Unfortunately, this does not work well all all systems yet as the taskhost process sometimes gets hung attempting to wake or hybernate a process. One way around this issue for now, until Microsoft permanently resolve this known issue, is to change your power settings.

To do that:

• Right-click on Start
• Left-click on Run
• In the Run dialog type POWERCFG.CPL then click OK
  
  This will open the Power Options window.
  
  In the left pane click Choose what the power buttons do
  
  This opens the System Settings window. In this window click Change settings that are currently unavailable.
  
  Remove the check in the box next to Turn on fast startup (recommended)
  
  Close all open windows and shut down computer completely. Upon next restart this issue may resolve itself. If not you could consider modifying a registry key value WaitToKillServiceTimeout. The default value here is 5000 but you could decrease this to 2000 which would reduce the time the system waits for a running service to stop after notifying it the system is shutting down - this is triggered when you click Start > Power icon > Shutdown. The value itself is located under the Registry key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control
  
  The catch with this modification though is you may also need to add the same value and data value to another Registry key for the current user's desktop. Hopefully, you will not need to go here; should it become necessary I'll walk you through this later. For the time being let's leave the registry alone and try the power option change first to see if things improve.

Regards,

Regedit32

 

[Graeme McKenzie]

Thanks i'll give that a go and report back

 

[Graeme McKenzie]

Well I didn't get too far into the process before I met a stumbling block
I did as you said and opened the command promt as admin, I typed in both commands you stated and I got the following message to both requests:
The service is not responding to the control function

Seeing these were services I load the task manager and went to services and tried to stop them there. Unfortunately this didn't work either. When I right clicked and selected stop I got the following message:
The operation could not be completed - The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion.

Any thoughts?

 

[Regedit32]

That particular error can be triggered if the read attribute is activated on the log file recording controls sent to Services. But there may be other issues causing this too.

Another way around this is to boot the computer into Safe Mode because you then will not need to stop those two Services at all, but just delete or rename that SoftwareDistribution folder then restart computer.

If you type system configuration into your search box then press Enter key this will open a small window. Next click the boot tab in that window and place a check mark in the box next to Safe boot then restart computer which will boot to Safe mode. Once there, via File Manager go to C:\Windows and rename the SoftwareDistribution folder to SoftwareDistribution.old, or simply delete the folder completely.

When you eventually restart computer to normal mode, a new SoftwareDistribution folder will be created.

Once you've done that open the system configuration again and remove that check mark next to safe boot and restart the computer so it can boot to normal mode, and hopefully you'll be able to start downloading your updates again.

 

[Graeme McKenzie]

Thank you so much that worked a treat and my update blockage has been cleared and things seem to be back to normal.
Thanks again