Windows 7 – Windows Update won’t update

windowswindows 7windows update

I'm trying to update my Windows 7 Professional 32-bit edition and when I try to tell Windows Update to scan for updates it failed with the error code 0x80096001.

I checked out WindowsUpdate.log and it appears this is the problem:

Validating signature for C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\WuRedir\9482F4B4-E343-43B6-B170-9A65BC822C77\muv4wuredir.cab:
WARNING: Error: 0x80096001 when verifying trust for C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\WuRedir\9482F4B4-E343-43B6-B170-9A65BC822C77\muv4wuredir.cab
WARNING: Digital Signatures on file C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\WuRedir\9482F4B4-E343-43B6-B170-9A65BC822C77\muv4wuredir.cab are not trusted: Error 0x80096001

How can I go about fixing this? It looks like it's just this one (corrupted?) file that's causing the problem.

Thanks!

UPDATE: Upon inspecting the file mentioned in the error message it appears that the file does not exist! What does this mean and how do I get it back?

UPDATE 2: Ok it appears that the file in question appears only for a split second when Windows Updating is trying to search (but fails) to find updates. So I guess the problem doesn't have to do with the file specifically then.

Best Answer

EDIT: Check your system time to be sure it is correct.

Copy the text below into a text file, then save it as a .bat file and execute it, this will reset Windows Update. Be sure the text below is in a text file as separate lines as shown.

When done run a manual Windows Update, it may take some time to list the updates because it has to rebuild the Softwaredistribution files.

net stop wuauserv

rmdir %windir%\softwaredistribution /s /q

rmdir %windir%\system32\softwaredistribution /s /q

regsvr32 /s wuaueng.dll

regsvr32 /s wuaueng1.dll

regsvr32 /s atl.dll

regsvr32 /s wups.dll

regsvr32 /s wups2.dll

regsvr32 /s wuweb.dll

regsvr32 /s wucltui.dll

net start wuauserv

.

EDIT: This is the short version of the reset procedure, but should fix your Softwaredistribution folder corruption, the Full reset Fixit and manual fix it myself instructions can be found here.

EDIT:If for some reason deleting the Softwaredistribution folder fails, boot from a linux cd and delete it from there.

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