Updates are important to apply and should be done regularly. I’ve had a couple of customers who have had Windows update issues. Basically the machine was spitting errors at the users. The error code they were seeing on a few machines was 0x87D00668. I did some poking around. Thankfully I have a quick and dirty way to fix this issue which is pretty much my go to when these issues crop up.
Windows updates are important to apply on a regular basis. You really don’t want to miss patching machines. In fact you should have a process in place to ensure you update all your computers regardless of the flavour of Operating System (OS) on a regular basis.
Microsoft FixIt Tool
On the machine you are having the problem, go to the Microsoft page where you can download the Windows Update Troubleshooter. Download it, and then run the application using Admin credentials.
It will go and basically clean up the folder where Windows updates are. That file location is C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download. Then the tool restarts the Windows update service.
I suggest a reboot at this point although it is not indicated it is needed.
With Configuration Manager 2012 R2 the updates, which were pushed as required, automatically started again and installed without troubles.
You can also do this manually.
Stop the Windows Update service.
net stop wuauserv
Rename the Software Distribution folder.
Then start the Windows Update service.
net start wuauserv
This should work for those who use WSUS, manual updates or something like Configuration Manager.
*Update – This works great for those trying the Windows 10 Beta and finding things getting stuck.