If you’ve ever tried running Windows update and received the message:
The website has encountered a problem and cannot display the page you are trying to view. Take the following steps to try solving the problem: Refresh the page. In Internet Explorer, delete your Temporary Internet Files by going to the Tools menu and clicking Internet Options. Close and then re-open Internet Explorer
Error
There is a working solution to fix this – Delete the Windows Update data store.
- Stop the Automatic Updates Service. This can be done by going to Start>Run, entering the command services.msc and then pressing enter. This will open the Windows services console. Locate the Automatic Updates service and right click to stop it
- Use Windows Explorer to browse to C:\Windows (assuming your OS is installed to C:). Locate the Software Distribution folder. Either delete (or rename if you want to be a bit safer) the folder
- Go back to the Windows services console and restart the Automatic Updates service
- Run Windows Update again
Windows Update should now work!
