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Applies to Windows | Windows Vista | Update, backup, & recovery
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Windows update will not download updates - stuck

at 0% downloading
SA sash123 asked on April 17, 2010

Everytime I start windows update it won't download the updates. The bar keeps on running but nothing
downloads and the percentage stays at 0%.
Whats wrong? Anything I can do to fix this?

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Answer

Faore Kuran replied on November 10, 2011

I found a solution to my problem when Windows would search for updates, but then when it started downloading
it would stay at 0% forever. I started by stopping the Windows Update service in my case the service proved to be
frozen so I restarted my computer and disabled the service before it starts and the ApplicationExperienceservice.
After that I went to the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder and pressed ctrl+a and shift+delete to empty its
contents. Mine contained more than 70,000 files so it took a while. I started ApplicationExperience and enabled
Windows Update. I let it check for updates and try to download them. It worked perfectly.
Do not worry about deleting important windows files in this case. The contents of SoftwareDistribution is used as a
cache and data for Windows Update. When Windows Update starts again it rebuilds the cache repopulating it with
uptodate versions of the files and chewing up a ton of harddisk space again.

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Answer

Mike replied on April 23, 2010

In reply to PA Bear MS MVP's post on April 18, 2010

sash123,
If this issue is still happening, then take a look at article: Vista Update stops at stage 3 of 3
Then let us know the results.

*** edited

Mike

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