Windows Update Errors

You receive a “Windows Update has encountered an error and cannot display the requested page” error when you try perform an update. Verify that the services that are required are started and running.

To do this follow these steps,

  1. Click Start, click Run, type services.msc, and then click OK.
  2. In the list of services, right-click Automatic Updates, and then click Properties.
  3. In the Startup type list, click Automatic, and then click Apply.
  4. If Service status is set to Stopped, click Start, and then click OK.
  5. Right-click Background Intelligent Transfer Service, and then click Properties.
  6. In the Startup type list, click Manual, and then click Apply.
  7. If Service status is set to Stopped, click Start, and then click OK.

If the services are missing add them back by these following steps,

The Automatic Updates service is missing

To reinstall the Automatic Updates service, follow these steps:

  1. Click Start, click Run, type the following command, and then click OK: %windir%\System32\rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 %windir%\inf\au.inf
  2. If you are prompted to insert your operating system CD, type the following path in the Copy files from box, and then click OK: %windir%\ServicePackFiles\i386 Note This location contains the most recently updated service pack files. If you cannot use this path to copy the required files from, insert your operating system CD, and then click OK.
The Background Intelligent Transfer Service is missing

To reinstall the Background Intelligent Transfer Service, follow these steps:

  1. Click Start, click Run, type the following command, and then click OK: %windir%\System32\rundll32.exe setupapi,InstallHinfSection DefaultInstall 132 %windir%\inf\qmgr.inf
  2. If you are prompted to insert your operating system CD, type the following path in the Copy files from box, and then click OK: %windir%\ServicePackFiles\i386 Note This location contains the most recently updated service pack files. If you cannot use this path to copy the required files from, insert your operating system CD, and then click OK.

And here is how to reset Windows Update components with Microsoft Fix it,

Download the following Fix It for your Operating System. Please note that these tools may be required to be ran in Aggressive Mode to resolve the issue.

Windows 10 Fix It, the downloaded file will be named WindowsUpdateDiagnostic.diagcab

Windows 8.1, Windows 8, and Windows 7 Fix It, the downloaded file will be named WindowsUpdateDiagnostic.diagcab

Windows Vista and Windows XP Fix It, the downloaded file will be named MicrosoftFixit.wu.MATSKB.Run.exe

Windows Update command utilities,

Here are a few very useful commands to force windows update service to check for new updates.

wuauclt /detectnow or wuauclt /ResetAuthorization /DetectNow

We have had a lot of success with the following commands in a batch file.

net stop wuauserv
REG DELETE “HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update”/v LastWaitTimeout /f
REG DELETE “HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update” /v DetectionStartTime /f
Reg Delete “HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update” /v NextDetectionTime /f
net start wuauserv
wuauclt /detectnow

From a dump of the wuauclt.exe we can extract the following options:
/DetectNow
/ReportNow
/RunHandlerComServer
/RunStoreAsComServer
/ShowSettingsDialog
/ResetAuthorization
/ResetEulas
/ShowWU
/ShowWindowsUpdate
/SelfUpdateManaged
/SelfUpdateUnmanaged
/UpdateNow
/ShowWUAutoScan
/ShowFeaturedUpdates
/ShowOptions
/ShowFeaturedOptInDialog
/DemoUI

Most of these options don’t give any noticable response, but that may be because of the state of the service. But you can check C:\Windows\WindowsUpdate.log after 10-15 minutes, and if there are no updates available, the end of the file should look somthing like this:

2010-08-02 11:28:52:400 952 37d8 AU # 0 updates detected
2010-08-02 11:28:52:400 952 37d8 AU #########
2010-08-02 11:28:52:400 952 37d8 AU ## END ## AU: Search for updates [CallId =

Neither switch will work unless you add /detectnow, and in the correct order.