WUAUSERV won’t stop article was updated Sept, 2020.
I’ve been plagued with the irritating WUAUSERV won’t stop issue. Windows 10 store wouldn’t download / install new apps or updates. Deleting the updates, rebooting didn’t do a bit of good.
First fix for WUAUSERV won’t stop
In the past all it took was to fire up CMD in Admin and type in the following commands:
- net stop wuauserv
- cd %systemroot%
- ren SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old
- net start wuauserv
And Bob’s your Uncle. Fire up the store and everything should work. However, a glitch cropped up that prevented Windows Update Service from shutting down. I worked through about 4 possible fixes, each increasingly invasive and complex, none of which worked. They all tripped over WUAUSERV failing to stop.
Possible fix to WUAUSERV won’t stop – check your antivirus
This morning I was struck by a blindingly obvious solution. The culprit was my antivirus program, not windows. I use AVAST, so I disabled it and ran the CMD commands. In under 5 min, Windows 10 store was downloading all previous updates and installed new apps with no issues. I restarted AVAST, went back to the store and it still worked.
So, there you have it, problem solved. However, I have to stress disabling your antivirus for any amount of time is a risk. I’d advice you to disable your internet connection first, then disable your antivirus and run the CMD commands. Restart your Internet and then start the store.
A third fix courtesy of a reader
Reader RON D wrote in with the following alternate fix:
- From a command prompt, run “sc queryex wuauserv”
- Look for the part where it says “PID: {number}” .. that is the process ID of wuauserv.
- Then use pskill, or task manager, to terminate the process. 🙂
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