How to Reinstall Failed/Cancelled Updates in Windows 10

How to Install a Failed Windows Update

"To my surprise, I discovered that I have two failed updates in the Windows 10 Update history within the settings, and these are the most recent ones. How can I prompt the system to reinstall these failed updates? I clicked on the 'Check for updates' button, but it informs me that my system is already up to date, thereby making the new update inaccessible."

Microsoft frequently releases system updates to provide users with the best experience with minimal bugs. Typically, these updates are automatically displayed when available in the Windows Update section under Settings > Update & Security. Simply by clicking 'Check for updates,' the update will initiate and install on your computer.

However, at times, users might unconsciously assume that the update has been successfully installed without verifying the update status or reviewing the update history, which actually shows the genuine outcome of the update – whether it was successful, failed, or canceled.

That's the issue we'll concentrate on fixing now: how to reinstall important updates that have failed once or twice. Essentially, you have two options, but both require preliminary steps to guarantee a 100% safe Windows 10 reinstallation while protecting all crucial data and the system. In short, you should always have a backup plan in place before attempting any system update or reinstallation.

Backing Up Systems and Data Before Reinstalling a Failed System

Here's the highly recommended Windows backup and recovery solution - Todo Backup. It's a dedicated Windows backup software that allows you to back up your disk, partition, files, and system using a compressed backup image, which doesn't consume significant disk storage space. Additionally, restoration of your backed-up data is just a single click away with this user-friendly tool.

Step 1. Launch Todo Backup on your computer, and click Create Backup on the home screen. Then, hit the big question mark to select backup contents.

Step 2. To back up your Windows operating system, click "OS" to start the backup task.

Step 3. Your Windows operating system information and all system-related files and partitions will be automatically selected, so you don't need to make any manual selections here. Next, you need to choose a location to save the system image backup by clicking on the illustrated area.

Step 4. The backup location can be another local drive on your computer, an external hard drive, a network, cloud, or NAS. Generally, we recommend using an external physical drive or cloud to store the system backup files.

Step 5. If interested, customization settings such as enabling an automatic backup schedule for daily, weekly, monthly, or event-based backups, and creating differential and incremental backups, can be found in the Options button. Click "Backup Now", and the Windows system backup process will commence. Once complete, the finished backup task will be displayed on the left side in a card format.

Regardless of the method you choose to resume a system update that has been interrupted, failed, or canceled, do not overlook the crucial step of protecting your computer data to the fullest!

Guide: How to Reinstall Failed Windows 10 Updates

Depending on your preference, you can opt for either of these methods to restart a failed system update, even if it's no longer accessible through the "Check for Updates" button.

Option 1: Rename the Software Distribution folder

This option is somewhat troublesome but has little impact on computer data.

Step 1. In the Windows 10 Search bar, type: %windir% and press "OK".

Step 2. Locate the "SoftwareDistribution" folder and rename it to "SoftwareDistributionOld".

Step 3. Next, click "Start" > "All Programs" > "Windows Update" > "View update history." Here, you'll see a list of all the updates that have been installed or failed to install on your computer. In the "Status" section, locate the failed update and click on the red X to determine the specific update build number. For instance, KB123456.

Step 4. Visit the Microsoft Downloads page, search for the update with the KB number KB123456, and download it to your computer.

Step 5. Run the downloaded update file to reinstall the update on your computer.

Option 2: Perform a clean installation of the Windows 10 update

Here, we'd like to present a simpler method to perform a clean installation of a Windows 10 system update without the need for a CD or USB recovery drive. This involves resetting your computer to its original, pristine state. Before proceeding with this process, ensure that all your data files are safely backed up.

Step 1. Go to Settings and click on "Update & Recovery".

Step 2. Click on "Recovery", and then tap "Get Started" under "Reset This PC".

Step 3. Select "Remove everything" and then choose "Remove files" to clean the drive and perform a clean reset on your PC.

Step 4. Finally, click "Reset".

Wait patiently until your computer restarts; by then, you'll have a freshly installed Windows 10. Simply go to Settings > Update & Security > Windows Update and check if there are any available system updates that you wish to install.

If you prefer the other way to clean install Windows 10 with a recovery drive, click the link and learn from it.