Page Last Updated: 07/02/2010
Reset, Repair and Reinstall the Automatic Updates System

We have written three small batch files that resets, repairs or reinstalls the Automatic Update system. They work with a Windows XP SP2 or Windows 2003 Server system straight out of the box, but with Windows 2000 the machine needs to have been updated to the new version of the Windows Automatic Update client before they will work.

Windows Vista and Windows 7

The only script confirmed to run on Windows Vista is the first one, to reset the Automatic Updates system. However on Vista the script will not run from a network share and needs to be run as Administrator. Therefore ensure the file is on your local machine, then right click on it and choose "Run as Administrator"

Reset the Automatic Updates System

What does it do?
The file stops the Automatic Update service, then flushes out the contents of the folder "Software Distribution". It then restarts the Automatic Update service again before forcing an update cycle to start.

Copy the text below in to a new notepad document and save it as aureset.cmd. Double click on the file to run it.

net stop "Automatic Updates" del /f /s /q %windir%\SoftwareDistribution\*.* net start "Automatic Updates" wuauclt.exe /detectnow

While it appears to work on Vista/Windows 7, if you actually watch the script you will find the service doesn't stop because it has another name in Vista / Windows 7. Therefore you will have to use another version of the script which is below - you can use the same file name as above. Remember to save the script on your local machine and run as administrator.

net stop "Windows Update" del /f /s /q %windir%\SoftwareDistribution\*.* net start "Windows Update" wuauclt.exe /detectnow

Repair Automatic Updates System (Not Vista or Windows 7)

This is another batch file that repairs the automatic updates system.

What does it do?
The file stops the "Background Intelligent Transfer Service" and the Automatic Update service, then re-registers the required DLLs. It then restarts the the two services that were stopped before forcing an update cycle to start with fresh cookies.

Copy the text below in to a new notepad document and save it as aurepair.cmd. Double click on the file to run it.

net stop bits net stop wuauserv %windir%\system32\regsvr32.exe /s %windir%\system32\atl.dll %windir%\system32\regsvr32.exe /s %windir%\system32\jscript.dll %windir%\system32\regsvr32.exe /s %windir%\system32\msxml3.dll %windir%\system32\regsvr32.exe /s %windir%\system32\softpub.dll %windir%\system32\regsvr32.exe /s %windir%\system32\wuapi.dll %windir%\system32\regsvr32.exe /s %windir%\system32\wuaueng.dll %windir%\system32\regsvr32.exe /s %windir%\system32\wuaueng1.dll %windir%\system32\regsvr32.exe /s %windir%\system32\wucltui.dll %windir%\system32\regsvr32.exe /s %windir%\system32\wups.dll %windir%\system32\regsvr32.exe /s %windir%\system32\wups2.dll %windir%\system32\regsvr32.exe /s %windir%\system32\wuweb.dll net start bits net start wuauserv wuauclt /resetauthorization /detectnow

Remove and Reinstall of Automatic Updates (Not Vista or Windows 7)

This batch file actually removes and reinstalls the Automatic Update system.

What does it do?
The file stops the "Background Intelligent Transfer Service" and the Automatic Update service, then removes the Automatic Update system, the logs and downloaded software files. It then reinstalls the automatic update system, starts the services and then removes the cookies for the automatic updates system and force it to look for changes.

Copy the text below in to a new notepad document and save it as aureinstall.cmd. Double click on the file to run it.

net stop bits net stop wuauserv regsvr32 /u wuaueng.dll /s del /f /s /q %windir%\SoftwareDistribution\*.* del /f /s /q %windir%\windowsupdate.log regsvr32 wuaueng.dll /s net start bits net start wuauserv wuauclt.exe /resetauthorization /detectnow

Common Mistake - Not Changing the File Type in Notepad

The most common reason why these scripts do not work is that to save a file as a cmd file, you need to change the setting in the Save as box to All File Types. You can then enter the full file name. Otherwise Windows will save it as "reset.cmd.txt" which will not do anything but open notepad.

Free up Space

If you have recently built the machine, or are simply getting tight on space, the first reset script can give you back a significant amount of space. Once the updates have been installed correctly, the files in the download location are no longer required. Therefore removing them before a defrag can make a significant difference.

About this site

This information originally started life as a page on amset.info, our community assistance site. However that site is targeted at Microsoft Exchange server, as Sembee Ltd. is a Microsoft Exchange consultancy. Therefore it was moved to its own domain in early 2010. Traffic from amset.info is directed here.

Other sites that are owned and operated by Sembee Ltd include kbsearch.info, certificatesforexchange.com, dosprompt.info, loginscripts.info, office-recovery.info, blog.sembee.co.uk, exbpa.com and amset.info.