How to Fix All of Those “Feature update to Windows 10” Errors

Keeping Windows 10 up to date is important to improve security and keep it running smoothly. The Windows Update is an essential component that provides monthly updates to download and install. But, you probably don’t care especially if you receive one of those annoying “feature update to windows 10” error messages.

Related:The Windows Update Client Troubleshooting Guide

In this tutorial, you’re going to learn how to specifically fix all of those annoying “feature update to windows 10” errors when installing updates and get a crash course in troubleshooting Windows updates from a long-time IT problem-solver.

Kick it!

Prerequisites

This tutorial will contain various demos. For this tutorial to apply to you, be sure you have Windows 10 (any build). The tutorial will run all demos on a Windows 10 Build 20H2 machine. Find your Windows version by running the winver command.

Recognizing the Problem

Before you start troubleshooting, it’s important to first get a lay of the land. If you haven’t already, open Windows Update and first get a feel for what you’re up against. For example, the problem could be the Windows Update service itself or may just be one or more updates.

Confirm the Windows Update Service is Working

First, check the Windows Update service. To do that, click on the Start menu, type Check for Updates, and select the settings application in the menu. Opening the Windows Update settings menu will allow you to inspect the service’s status. If any general errors have been found, they will be displayed here.

If all is well with the Windows Update service, you’ll see a green checkmark, as shown below.

Inspect Pending or Failed Updates

If the Windows Update service looks operational, dive in a bit deeper to discover which updates are having a problem.

On the main Windows Update screen, you may see a message indicating one or more updates are still pending, have failed to download, or have failed to install. If Windows Update encountered a problem downloading or installing any updates, you’ll see them here.

Knock Out Common Windows Update Issues First

Whenever you run into a problem with Windows Update, it can be a frustrating experience. Sometimes, the steps to resolve the issue are specific to the error message at hand. For example, when you receive a message like “feature update to windows 10”, you’ll see below you might need specific help.

In general, you can knock out a lot of random Windows Update issues by following a few troubleshooting steps.

Check Off The Basics

Before you start with any major troubleshooting effort, always first perform the most basic troubleshooting steps first.

• Disable Antivirus – Antivirus programs are known to interfere with Windows Update. Disabling antivirus is out of the scope of this tutorial so reference your antivirus vendor’s website for information on how to disable it.
• Restart Your Computer – Telling you to reboot may sound cliche but you wouldn’t believe how often it resolves issues especially with Windows Update. Restarting the computer forces all the OS and all applications to start over and can “fix” many issues.
• Restart the Windows Update and Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) services – Windows Update runs via a Windows service that runs in the background with other dependent services. Restart both the Windows Update and BITS services and try again.

Related:How to Manage Windows Services with PowerShell

Clean up the Windows Image with the DISM Tool

Windows 10 has a tool called Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM). This tool is typically used by Windows administrators to deploy and manage Windows images. But, this tool is also handy for fixing corrupt or missing Windows Update files on Windows 10.

DISM uses Windows Update to perform some critical operations. Depending on the state of Windows Update will depend on how you can use DISM.

DISM with a Health Windows Update Service

If Windows Update is working properly, you can run DISM as normal pointing to your active Windows installation. To run the DISM tool, open a command prompt as administrator and run the following command. The command below:

• Looks at the currently active Windows OS, not a disk image using the /Online switch
• Performs a series of cleanup and recovery actions with the /Cleanup-image switch.
• Scans the Windows component store and fixes any corruption with the /Restorehealth switch.

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth 

DISM with a Broken Windows Update Service

If for some reason, Windows Update is broken, DISM will not work. In that case, you must point DISM to a Windows 10 image’s side-by-side folder with an install.esd file from a network share or from removable media such as a Windows DVD.

Once you have an image source, run the following command. This command tells DISM to pull necessary components not from the active Windows installation but from another source using the /Source parameter. Using the /LimitAccess prevents DISM from contacting Windows Update.

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:C:\RepairSource\Windows /LimitAccess

While running the above command, you may notice that the progress will seem to be stuck at 20%. This is normal behavior and will stay at 20% for a while before continuing.

Run a System File Checker Scan

In many cases, Windows Update errors occur because of corrupted or incomplete system update files. Windows can sometimes corrupt update files due to an interrupted or lost internet connection. The System File Checker (SFC) utility is a great way to repair files that DISM cannot.

To run SFC, open a command prompt as administrator and run sfc /scannow. Using the /scannow switch, SFC will scan all protected system files, and replace any corrupted files with a cached copy located in a compressed folder located in your c:\windows\system32\dllcache folder.

sfc /scannow

After SFC performs a scan, you will receive one of the following messages:

Resolving Specific Error Codes

If after trying the above steps, you still continue to have problems with specific updates, it’s time to pull out the big guns. It’s time to start troubleshooting based on the specific error code the update is displaying.

When a problem occurs download or installing an update, Windows Update returns an error code that provides some insight into the problem at hand. You’ll see an example of that error code below.

The actions to fix an update greatly depend on the error code so let’s now cover some of the most common error codes you’ll see when updating Windows 10 and how to fix them!

Feature update to windows 10, version 1903 Error 0x80080008

• Applies to: Windows 10 versions 1803-1809 and – 1903
• Reason: The Windows Update Service library (wups2.dll) was not installed correctly.

Fixes

1. Disable your antivirus product. This error sometimes occurs when an antivirus product is “protecting” the wups2.dll file.
2. Re-register the wups2.dll and associated DLL libraries. Open a command prompt as administrator and run the following commands.

REGSVR32 WUCLTUX.DLL /S
 REGSVR32 WUWEBV.DLL /S
 REGSVR32 JSCRIPT.DLL /S
 REGSVR32 MSXML3.DLL /S
 REGSVR32 WUPS2.DLL /S
 REGSVR32 WUPS.DLL /S
 REGSVR32 WUAUENG.DLL /S
 REGSVR32 WUAPI.DLL /S

3. Restart your computer.

Feature update to windows 10, version 1903 Error 0x80070002

• Applies to: Windows 10 versions: 1903 – 1809 -1709 – 1607
• Reason: Windows has detected an incorrect date and time on your system

Fixes

Update your time by synchronizing with an Internet time server.

1. Open the Windows Control Panel.
2. Open the Date and Time applet.
3. Click on the Internet Time tab and on Change Settings.
4. Enable the Synchronize with internet time server option and click OK.
5. Restart your computer.

Feature update to windows 10, version 1607 Error 0x80070005

• Applies to: Windows 10 versions 1607 – 1903 1803
• Reason: Windows Update could not not access a needed file due to a permissions issue.

Fixes

1. Reset the Windows Update cache.

Feature update to windows 10, version 1903 Error 0x80070020

• Applies to: Windows 10 versions 1803, 1903
• Reason: Windows Update process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process.

Fixes

1. Restart the computer to stop all conflicting applications from interfering with Windows Update.
2. Use the handle tool to track down which process is locking Windows Update files.

Feature update to windows 10, version 1903 Error 0x80070002

• Applies to: Windows 10 versions 1803.1607,1709, 1809
• Reason: One or more update files are either missing or have been corrupted.

Fixes

1. Perform a System File Scan with sfc /scannow as described in an earlier section of this tuturial.

Feature update to windows 10, version 1607 Error 0x80240031

• Applies to: Windows 10 version 1607
• Reason: One or more Windows Update components in the registry may become corrupted, damaged, or missing.

Fixes

1. Perform a System File Scan with sfc /scannow as described in an earlier section of this tuturial.

Feature update to windows 10, version 1903 Error 0xc1900130

• Applies to: Windows 10 versions 1903, 1803
• Reason: The network connection to the Windows Update server is interrupted.

Fixes

1. Confirm you have a connection to the Internet and try again.
2. Disable your proxy server.

Feature update to windows 10, version 1903 Error 0x80070015

• Applies to: Windows 10 version 1903
• Reason: A program or service has not started. This error may appear when a program hasn’t loaded yet.

Fixes

1. Reset the Windows Update cache.

Feature update to windows 10, version 1903 Error 0x80244018

• Applies to: Windows 10 version 1903
• Reason: The network connection to the Windows Update server is interrupted similar to error 0xc1900130.

Fixes

1. Confirm you have a connection to the Internet and try again.
2. Disable your proxy server.

Feature update to windows 10, version 1803 Error 0x80242006

• Applies to: Windows 10 versions 1803
• Reason: The Windows Defender distribution database is damaged or the BITS service is stopped or paused.

Fixes

1. Ensure the BITS service is started.
2. Force Windows Update to contact the the service directly by:
   1. Open the local policy editor by running gpedit.msc.
   2. Select Computer Configuration —> Administrative Templates —> System.
   3. Open the Specify settings for optional component installation and component repair option.
   4. Enable the setting and select Contact Windows Update directly.

Feature update to windows 10, version 1607 Error 0x80248007

• Applies to: Windows 10 versions 1607, 1703
• Reason: Windows Update cannot find some necessary files or can’t locate the Microsoft Software License Terms.

Fixes

1. Reset the Windows Update cache.

Conclusion

The Windows Update service is a critical component of Windows 10 but when it doesn’t work, it can be infuriating. Next time you run into a problem, reference this tutorial to hopefully save you some headaches!

Did any of these tips help you fix a Windows Update error?