How To: Fix Windows Vista Update Error Code 8000FFFF “Cannot update the computer”
Are you affected by the Windows Vista Update Error problem? This happens when you are trying to update Windows Vista and instead of working like it should, you receive an error 8000FFFF. So, whats the deal with the Windows Vista update error and what exactly does 8000FFFF mean?
The Windows Vista update error 8000FFF “Cannot update the computer”problem has been widely reported by Vista users with 4GB or more of ram, but can occur on other configurations as well.
The Windows Vista update error 8000FFF can occur if one of the following factor is true:
- The relevant Windows Update services stop working.
- The temporary folder of Windows Update has been corrupted.
- Windows Update Agent does not work.
At this time, let’s try the following steps to troubleshoot this Windows Vista update issue. After completing the steps, please perform Windows Update to check the result.
Step 1: Verify the relevant Windows Update services
- Click on Windows Vista Start, type services.msc in the Start Search box and press Enter.
- In the right pane, please check whether the following three services have been started:
Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)
Windows Event Log
Windows Update
- If not, please start them one by one.
Step 2: Rename the Windows Update SoftwareDistribution folder
- Click on Windows Vista Start, type notepad in Start Search box, and press Enter.
- Copy the following commands and then paste them into the open Notepad editor window:
net stop wuauserv
net stop Cryptsvc
ren %windir%\SoftwareDistribution SD.old
ren %windir%\system32\catroot2 catroot2.old
net start wuauserv
net start Cryptsvc
- After pasting the above commands, please close the Notepad editor window. Choose Save when you are prompted to save the file. Type “register.bat” as the file name and choose Desktop from the left panel as the location.
- Refer to the Windows Vista Desktop, right click the register.bat file, and choose Run as administrator.
- You will see a DOS-like window processing.
Note: Please look at the cmd window and make sure it says that it was successfully started. After that, please run Windows Update to test the issue again.
If the Windows Vista update error 0×8000ffff persists when searching for updates, let’s reinstall Windows Update Agent 3.0.
Step 3: Reinstall Windows Update Agent 3.0
- Please download the file from the following link:
Windows Vista (32bit)-http://download.windowsupdate.com/v7/windowsupdate/redist/standalone/WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe
- Save the file to D: drive.
Note: Please select a drive where Windows Vista was not loaded because the file cannot be launched directly from the system root directory.
- Click Start, click Run, type: “D:\WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe /wuforce” (without quotations) and then press Enter to install the Windows Update engine.
Note: There is a space between “D:\WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe” and “/wuforce”.Now, let’s run Windows Update again.
Please also try the following steps to troubleshoot the Windows Vista update issue 8000FFF “Cannot update the computer”:
- Click on Windows Vista Start, type regedit in the Start Search box, and press Enter.
- In the Windows Registry Editor window, expand: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\COMPONENTS, right-click COMPONENTS and select Export to backup the registry key.After that, please delete the following entries in the right pane:
PendingXmldentifier
NextQueueEntryIndex
AdvancedInstallersNeedResolving
- Restart the Windows Vista computer and try to perform Windows Update again.
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Written by Tony on January 11th, 2009 with
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