[FIX] Unable to Download Updates Using Windows Update or Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE)
Many times when Windows users try to run Windows Update or try to access Microsoft update website or try to update Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE), they receive weird error messages like “0x80070424“. Windows XP users may also find that Automatic Updates feature is disabled in Security Center and they can’t enable it.
Actually it happens when a few system services required to run Windows Update are not running or a few system files are not registered properly. Microsoft has acknowledged the issue in a KB article and provided a fix for it.
Microsoft has also shared a few known methods to fix this annoying issue which are mentioned in a simple and easy to understand language as following:
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Table of Contents
METHOD 1: Enable the required services
1. Type services.msc in RUN or Start Menu search box and press Enter. It’ll open Services Manager.
2. Now make sure following services are set to Automatic and running:
- Automatic Updates OR Windows Update
- Background Intelligent Transfer Service
- Workstation
If any or all above mentioned services are not running or not set to Automatic, double-click on the service, set its Startup type to Automatic from the drop-down list, Apply the changes and click on “Start” button to immediately start it.
3. Restart Windows and it should fix the issue.
METHOD 2: Register the required system files
1. Run following commands in RUN or Start Menu search box one by one:
regsvr32 Qmgr.dll /s
regsvr32 Qmgrprxy.dll /s
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2. Restart Windows and it should fix the issue.
METHOD 3: Run Windows Update troubleshooter
1. Provide following command in RUN or Start Menu search box and press Enter:
explorer shell:::{26EE0668-A00A-44D7-9371-BEB064C98683}\0\::{C58C4893-3BE0-4B45-ABB5-A63E4B8C8651}
2. It’ll open Troubleshooting page in Control Panel. Now click on “Fix problems with Windows Update” link.
3. It’ll launch Windows Update troubleshooter. Follow the instructions and it’ll fix the issue.
METHOD 4: Using Registry Editor
1. Press WIN+R keys to launch RUN dialog box. Type regedit and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.
2. Now go to following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate
3. In right-side pane, look for a DWORD DisableWindowsUpdateAccess. If you find it, either change its values to 0 or delete the DWORD.
4. Close Registry Editor and restart your computer to take effect.
Thanks to our reader “Vladimir Kandic” for sharing this solution…
METHOD 5: Using automatic reset script
You can also try to reset Windows Update components to fix this problem:
Fix Windows Updates Problems and Issues Using Automatic Reset Script
METHOD 6: Using automatic fixit
Microsoft has also released automatic fixit to fix the issue quickly and easily. You can download it using following link:
After downloading, run the msi file and it’ll fix the issue automatically.
The above mentioned fixes will definitely help you in fixing error messages and strange problems while accessing Windows Update or updating Microsoft Security Essentials.
Also Check: [Fix] Windows 7 Keeps Checking for Updates for Hours
I didn’t receive this error for ages, but for the people that are facing this your post is an excelent remedy.
Congrats.
is there any way or software to create a DVD video(for dvd player) in one hour( i use many sw but take more than 4 hours).
Intel pentium 4 2.7GHz with 2 Threads
XFX nVidia Gforce 8400gs HD
DDR2. 2GB memory
Please heip me
ah finally, I’m using Microsoft Essentials on my XP but whenever I try to update the virus definitions some error pops up saying cannot connect to internet bla,bla,bla….. hope these methods will fix this issue….
um vg, why are there some that says “Automatic (Delay Start)”? what does that mean?
@Kyle:
That service options will start the service after a few minutes when your windows has restarted..
actually, its a common sense thing. 🙂
hey VG, whenever I try to update Microsoft Essentials, this error code pops up “0x8024400a”.
Can you tell me how to fix this………
^^ If you are using a firewall, try to disable it and then update MSE. You can also try following hotfix:
support.microsoft.com/hotfix/KBHotfix.aspx?kbnum=923507&kbln=en-us
@Kyle
As yethz said, its used to start a service with some delay to make the whole system startup faster. It lets other startup items launch faster.
After upgraded to WIndows 10 I got this error.
None of above methods didn’t work for me.
After a little bit of searching, I have finally found the solution.
1. Open Registry Editor and find key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate
2. If value for DisableWindowsUpdateAccess is 1, modify it to 0.
3. Restart Windows Update service
4. Retry Windows Update
5. Voila! WU is working!
Cheers!
Vlad! You are awesome! You fixed my issue!
no way I am very sad.I am behind this for last seven months.I dont have windows update and BITS in my services.My fixit 50202 is showing errors.even when i downloaded windows 10 media creation tool,it is not working.This happened after formatting my laptop.My is sony vaio 64-bit laptop.please help me.I beg you.please…
Every one of those updates including the service pack update is useless, because the second i try to install any of them the first thing it does is come up with “searching for updates on this computer” and just hangs at that stage which is the whole problem im trying to fix with the automatic updates. I can’t install any of them for that reason
all of the other options for registry keys and such didn’t work for me until i ran this command to register the windows updates dll. After this command, the service showed up in services and i was able to start it
regsvr32 %systemroot%\system32\wuaueng.dll
HI I CANT FIND {HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Update} THIS FILE WHEN I SEARCH IN RUN
CAN U PLEASE HELP.
^^ You need to search for it in Registry Editor.
ANY of this didn’t worked! I tried any kind of other sites! AND NOTHING! *sighs* THIS THING IS INVINCIBLE…