Many PC users will have at some point, experienced problems while trying to update Windows. And when these errors occur, it can be due to various reasons.
There are dozens of programs which claim to fix problems associated with updating, but turn out to be cash-grab stuff, adware or in the worst case scenario, a potentially malicious program.
Forget those, what you can do to fix your computer, is troubleshoot the issues one step at a time. In case of software related issues, you should run some commands in the command-line, like sfc /scannow, before trying slightly more advanced things like Safe Mode.
Things like these which may seem easy to you, can be quite intimidating for many people, which is why they tend to seek some sort of assistance from an experienced user, or a program that can apply the fixes for them.
Fixdows can help you with this, and it doesn’t cost a penny, because it’s open source. The application’s interface is minimal, has no icons, but does have a number of tabs. Switch to the 2nd tab, Windows Update Fixes. See that large button? Clicking it resets the Windows Update Components and restarting services related to it.
Be warned though, Fixdows will also remove group policies that you may have set for Windows Update. The tool will reboot your computer after applying the fixes, but only if you follow the on-screen prompts that say “hit any key to continue”. You may close the window to avoid rebooting the system temporarily, but you should restart the computer manually for Windows Update to work correctly.
Is the fix updates option safe to use? Yes, the script is available at TenForums. It is essentially a quick way to reset Windows Update related services and components by running some special commands. This troubleshooting step is highlighted on Microsoft’s documentation portal, and is also one of the fixes that is often recommended by experts at the Windows community forums. I’ve personally found these commands helpful, when computers in our household threw errors related to failed updates.
But I digress, if you don’t know how to run those commands, and want to fix issues like Windows Update not downloading or failed to update, Fixdows can do it for you.
Let’s take a look at the third tab in the program, Windows Store Reset. Ever had the Store app not open or unable to download updates? Windows has a built-in tool to fix this, it’s called WSReset. Fixdows lets you run the command with a simple click.
If you’ve encountered a BSOD, or have random errors popping up while using Windows, the first thing you should do is to check if the operating system’s files are intact. This is done by running the system file checker tool, popularly abbreviated as SFC. The Integrity Checks and Fixes section in Fixdows runs the SFC command for you, followed by DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool).
The Disk Cleanup tab in Fixdows has a shortcut which when clicked upon, opens Windows’ built-in junk file deletion tool. I have nothing to say here, you know what it does.
Fixdows requires administrator rights to run, that’s not surprising since most of the commands it runs require elevated privileges. The developer had created a similar tool called Winblows-Maintenance-Tool, before shifting the effort to Fixdows.
Note: The installer version of the program was flagged by 3 obscure antivirus programs, the portable version is clean, though a couple of files in it had one obscure detection. I wouldn’t worry too much about it, since you can literally see the steps that it executes (in the command-line window).
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