Since Microsoft started with the Windows Insider program I have installed Windows 10 numerous time and most have worked without any issue however I have had the odd update problem, and most of the time the same fix seems to sort the problem so I thought I would document it here to help anybody else having problems.

In many cases Windows Update will download the new version of Windows and get as far as preparing for installation but then stop, sometimes with this error:

There were some problems installing updates, but we’ll try again later. If you keep seeing this and want to search the web or contact support for information, this may help: (0x800705b4)

Sometimes the error code is 0x50070078

This actually means the download has somehow been corrupted, normally when the download is interrupted or there is not enough space to download the update. Sometimes you will see this error once and then it will say “Your device is up to date” even when you know it isn’t.

So here is my fix and this has worked for me many times.

  1. Make sure you have at 5GB free, Windows should warn you about low disk space but not always.
  2. Reboot the PC
  3. In Cortana or search type “Services” and load up Services.
  4. In the list of services find the “Background Intelligent Transfer” service and select Stop.
  5. Find the Windows Update service and click Stop
  6. Use Windows Explorer and navigate to “c:\windows\SoftwareDistribution”
  7. Delete all the content in the folder (highlight it all and select Delete)
  8. Some files may not delete but the important ones are Download and DeliveryOptimization, if they won’t delete reboot and go back to step 3.
  9. Reboot
  10. Sign back in and go to Windows Update and it should download the update.

That was worked for me many times, so I hope it works for you!

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