10 Best Ways to Fix Windows 10 Update Error 0x8000ffff

By
Garvit Sinha
-
733

Updating your Windows Operating System from time to time is an important thing to do to make sure the efficiency of your system. Microsoft Corporation also releases time to time updates of their OS to provide more features and better quality experience to their users. Since the time, Microsoft has updated their Windows 10 with KB3159706; many users are facing and complaining several issues. Users are receiving error messages like “Feature update to Windows 10, version 1607 – Error 0x8000ffff“. Due to this error, the update either stops in between or doesn’t get installed.

This error also crashes the active program window. Also, it makes Windows to run sluggishly and your PC starts working very slow and takes too long to respond to mouse or keyboard input. It might also cause your PC to freeze for a few minutes during the crash time.

This error message appears during the installation of a program while Windows Update Service is running at the time of Windows startup or shutdown or at the time of installing Windows Operating System.

Why Does Windows 10 Update Error 0x8000ffff Occur?

The error code 0x8000ffff can occur due to many reasons. So try each of the following causes and methods to make sure that the error disappears and to prevent it from recurring.

  • This error code 0x8000ffff can occur due to corrupt installation media in your PC.
  • Defective apps or programs.
  • Corruption in Windows Registry due to a recently changed installation or un-installation of Windows update related software.
  • Virus or malware that might have corrupted Windows system files or the updated program files of Windows.
  • Due to corrupt download or incomplete installation of software.
  • Some other program or folder maliciously deleted your Windows update files.

How to Fix Windows 10 Update Error 0x8000ffff?

Below are the solutions available to rectify the issue of error code 0x8000ffff. Although some of the methods are very difficult and time-consuming, but they ensure the removal of the error code 0x8000ffff. So try them according to the cause of your problem and get it solved.

Method #1 Scan Your Computer for Any Virus or Malware Infection

Windows 10 often annoys us with various errors such as 0x8000ffff, system service exception or INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE. The error code 0x8000ffff can appear on your screens due to a virus attack or malware infection in your system. This malware infection can corrupt, destroy, damage or delete your Run-time error related files. Also, the error code could be a part of the malicious program present in your PC. You can use Windows Defender or Emsisoft Anti-Malware program as they offer the guarantee of removing malware from your PC unlike other security programs or tools. Follow the steps to scan your PC using Windows Defender:

  1. At First, press Windows+Q together & search for Windows Defender Settings. Click on the search result displayed.
    windows defender settings
    windows defender settings
  2. Then click on Virus & threat protection under Protection areas.
    Virus & threat protection
    Virus & threat protection
  3. Now, just choose Scan now option under Threat history.
    Scan Now Windows Defender
    Scan Now Windows Defender
  4. Afterwards, the scanning will take around 15 minutes.
  5. Check if the error has disappeared after the scanning.

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Method #2 Use System Restore

By using System Restore, you can go back to the time when your PC was working correctly. This means it will return your computer’s files and programs to the time when everything was working fine without any error causing troubles. Follow the steps to use System Restore on a Windows XP, Vista, 7 or 8 OS:

  1. At First, navigate to Start and type “Create a restore point” in the search box.
    Create a restore point
    Create a restore point
  2. Then click on the search result displayed.
  3. Navigate to System Protection tab and select System Restore option.
    System Restore
    System Restore
  4. Now, follow the on-screen instructions in the Wizard to select a restore point.
  5. Finally, Restore your PC.

Method #3 Manually Update Using Media Creation Tool

To solve your problem, you can try to install the update manually using Media creation tool instead of making use of upgrade assistant for it. So if there is any corruption in the updated files, you will be able to remove the error 0x8000ffff using this method. Follow the steps:

  1. At First, download Media creation tool from here.
  2. Once downloaded, right-click on it as select Run as administrator.
  3. Then click Accept on the License page.
  4. Afterwards, click on Upgrade this PC now on “What do you want to do page?“, and then on Next.Upgrade PC Using Media Creation Tool
  5. Now Windows 10 will start downloading. After the downloading is done, it will take you to the update part.
  6. You need to enter product key on the Setup page if you are doing this process for the first time. But if you are updating or reinstalling it, you don’t need to enter the product key.
  7. Now, you will see a recap of what you have selected so far and out of which what will be kept through the update. Click on “change what to keep” to choose whether you want to keep personal files and apps or personal files only or you can choose to keep nothing during the update.
  8. Click on Install now. The manual update will be completed soon. Your PC will restart now while the setup process will take place.

Method #4 Switch to Administrator Account

It is recommended to always log in to Windows 10 with an Admin account to prevent error code 0x8000ffff. As the guest account does not get much access to updates so switch to the administrator account by following the steps:

  1. At First, navigate to Start Menu > User Picture.
  2. Afterwards, select Sign out.
    Sign Out
    Sign Out
  3. Switch to Administrator account and login to Windows 10 again.
  4. Try to update Windows now and check if the error has disappeared. If not, go through this guide to resolve sign in issue.

Method #5 Run sfc or scannow

SFC or System File Checker allows you to scan and restore the corruptions in Windows System files and also the ones related to the error code 0x8000ffff. Follow the steps to run sfc or scannow on your Windows PC:

  1. Press Windows+X together & choose Command Prompt (Admin) from the menu.
    Select Command Prompt
    Select Command Prompt
  2. After that, type the following commands in Command Prompt and hit Enter.
    Sfc /scannow
    sfc /scannow /offbootdir=c:\ /offwindir=c:\windows

    Sfc /scannow
    Sfc /scannow
  3. SFC will start scanning process now to find the error 0x8000ffff and any other system file problems and corruptions.
  4. The scanning will take some time to complete and after that follow on-screen instructions.

Method #6 Install Windows Updates

Microsoft continually works on improving, developing and updating Windows System Files that could be related to the error code 0x8000ffff. Sometimes users can fix this issue by merely updating all the latest available updates of Windows. Follow the steps for this:

  1. Navigate to Start Menu & search for Check for Updates in the search bar.
    Check for Updates
    Check for Updates
  2. Click on the result displayed. Simply, click on Check for Updates button.
    Check for Updates
    Check for Updates
  3. If there are any available updates, click on Install Updates button.

Method #7 Reinstall Windows Update Program Related with Error 0x8000ffff

If the error code 0x8000ffff is occurring with a specific program, reinstall the Windows Update related software to get it solved. Follow the steps to do this on your Windows 8 computer:

  1. Navigate to Control Panel>>Programs & Features.
  2. Look for Windows Update Agent Installer Error 0x8000ffff-associated program. For instance – Windows Update under the Name Column.
  3. Afterwards, select Windows Update-associated entry & choose Uninstall.
  4. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the removal of the error code 0x8000ffff related program.
  5. At last, reinstall this program according to the instructions given on the Microsoft website.

Method #8 Run Disk Clean Up

With the passage of time, your computer collects and stores a lot of junk files and data due to web surfing and other activities. You need to constantly clean out these junk files as it causes the Windows Update to work slowly or it results in error 0x8000ffff due to any file conflicts or overload of the hard drive. You can use Disk Cleanup to clean up these temporary and unwanted junk files to remove the error and also to increase the speed and performance of your PC.

Remember that Disk Cleanup will not be able to clean all temporary files on your PC and specifically the ones related to MS Office, Firefox, Google Chrome, Live Messenger and some others. Follow the steps to run Disk Cleanup on your Windows computer:

  1. Press Windows Key+R to open Run box.
  2. Afterwards, type “cleanmgr” in it and press Enter key.cleanmgrcleanmgr
  3. Disk Cleanup will start calculating now how much of the occupied space can be cleaned.
  4. The dialog box of Disk Cleanup will appear with a list of check-boxes. Select the ones which you want to empty. Usually, the Temporary Files folder occupies most of the space that can be reclaimed.
  5. Check-mark the boxes that you wish to clean up and click on OK button.

Method #9 Update Your Device Drivers

The corrupt or outdated drivers in your PC can lead to errors like 0x8000ffff, AMD Radeon graphics error 43, unidentified network issue, etc. Also, drivers can sometimes stop working suddenly due to different reasons. In such a case, you should update your drivers at once to solve all the problems. You can use a bulk driver update tool like DriverEasy to download and install the correct drivers for your PC automatically.

DriverEasy Scan Now
DriverEasy Scan Now

As finding the exact driver for your PC is a little difficult task even if you consider it on Microsoft’s website. The process of manually updating device drivers is very time consuming and frustrating. And if mistakenly you install a wrong or incompatible version of a driver in your PC it can make things worse for you.

So it is recommended to use DriverEasy for this purpose. It will update all your computer’s drivers and not only the ones which are related to the error 0x8000ffff. DriverEasy assures you the installation of the correct driver for your PC as it is a highly trusted and successful software developed to download device drivers automatically. It also creates a backup of the older versions of your drivers in case you need to go back to the previous version. The updated drivers will open new hardware feature thereby increasing the efficiency and performance of your system.

Method #10 Reset Windows Store Cache

Sometimes, Windows Store Cache restricts the update and the installation of a few apps. Follow the steps to solve this:

  1. Press Windows Key + R simultaneously & type “wsreset.exe.” Hit Enter after that.
    wsreset.exe
    wsreset.exe
  2. This will clear the Store Cache for you.
  3. Now check if you can update or install apps without any error.

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Conclusion

Hope this article will solve your problem of error code 0x8000ffff. Try any of the solutions given above and resolve the errors in your PC permanently.