Microsoft normally
releases security patches for its Windows Operating System on the second
Tuesday of each month (Patch Tuesday),
with the exception being updates to the definitions for Windows Defender
and Microsoft Security Essentials, which are released daily. There are
also times when the company will release system critical patches outside of the
Patch Tuesday period. With that said, these updates from Microsoft help
keep your system secure among other things and should be downloaded and
installed as often as they are released.
Now to the problem. Several computers in the
recent past where the Windows Update utility returns the following error:
For those of you who may
have experienced this error, you would know that even after restarting the
service and the computer the error keeps popping up when you try checking for
updates. So how do you fix it?
1.
Click on Start
2.
Go to Computer or My Computer (based on the version of Windows you’re using)
3.
Go to the C drive (or whatever drive letter has the OS installation)
4.
Go to the Windows folder
5.
Go to SoftwareDistribution
6.
Go to DataStore
7.
Go to Logs
8.
Delete the edb.log file (if you’re not seeing the .log part, then delete
the files that simply says edb)
9.
Restart your computer and try running the Windows Update Utility again
For the more techie
among you, here’s the file path:
C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore\Logs\edb.log
The edb file keeps track
of the update history and status of your computer. If the status cannot
be determined then the updates won’t run. This often happens as a result
of the file becoming corrupted.
Note: If the file does not
exist (as in after you’ve deleted it), upon restarting your computer the OS
will recreate it, assume that updates were never run or installed and should
start working as normal again.
Please let me know if
this fix worked for you in the comment section of this post.
_____________________________________
UPDATE: If you’re having
trouble deleting the files then you’ll need to ensure that the Windows Update
utility has been stopped first. Here’s what you can do:
1.
Go to Start and type services.msc
2.
Hit Enter
3.
Scroll down to find Windows Update
4.
Right mouse Click on Windows Update and choose Stop (Do not close the windows)
5.
Now go to C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\ and try deleting all files in the folder
again
6.
Go back to the Services window and start Windows Update (Right mosue click on Windows Update and choose
start)
7.
Restart your computer.
______________________________________
UPDATE: If the above method did not work for you maybe this
one will:
1.
Click on Start and type cmd in the area/box
2.
Right mouse click
on cmd (when it shows up in the
top left of the start menu)
and select ‘Run as Administrator‘
3.
Say Yes to the User Account Control dialog (if it pops up)
4.
Type: net stop wuauserv in the now open command prompt/dos prompt
5.
Hit Enter on the keyboard
6.
Type: ren c:\windows\SoftwareDistribution
softwaredistribution.old
7.
Hit Enter on the keyboard
8.
Type: net start wuauserv
9.
Hit Enter on the keyboard
10. Type: exit
11. Hit Enter on the keyboard
12. Try checking for and downloading the updates
again
Note: If typing in
the commands does not work, you can try copying and pasting them.
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