Windows 10 Update
 

This afternoon it struck me - for no apparent reason - that I'd not seen any messages for a while telling me that a windows update was pending and I needed to either restart or shut down my laptop. I went into settings to check and it said I was missing important security and quality fixes, so I clicked on the Check For Updates button. It did its thing for a few minutes before returning the following:

There were some problems installing updates, but we'll try again later. If you keep seeing this and want to search the web or contact support for information, this may help: (0x80080005)

I did a search and got a whole load of links, ranging from the usual scam rubbish (as in "you need our all singing, all dancing driver update") through practical advice such as running the troubleshooter right up to the seemingly complex long list of instructions to type into the command prompt. I ran the troubleshooter but it didn't fix the issue.

I looked deeper into the more complex advice, but although they seem genuine I'm a bit reluctant to start typing in commands when I don't have a clue what I'm really doing. Has anyone had this issue themselves and managed to resolve it? If so, any advice would be much appreciated.

This is one of the links I looked at, but I stopped at Method 3 as it began looking scary!

https://thedroidguy.com/how-to-fix-w...%20Section.%20

There is a built in Troubleshooting tool that usually does a good job.
If you open Settings and type Troubleshoot you should find it under Additional Troubleshooters

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...1-db50b4d18d0b

Thanks, but I've already tried that and unfortunately it didn't fix the problem.

The troubleshooter is neither use nor ornament, avoid using it.

Do not do updates from the internet unless is from the official Microsoft website.
best to allow the updates to be carried out automatically, what ever the update manager returns by way of messages.

Shut down the computer and wait a few mins, then restart, and carry on using it as normal , it will update automatic in the background.

You should try a Linux based system, e.g Ubuntu much better.

It is the official updates I'm trying to sort out, because for reasons unknown the system is not doing it automatically - hence why I used the 'check for updates' option in the settings panel.

The section of this doc "Rename software distribution folder" should do the trick.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/...8-32d177eb136c

If its not looking for updates, check they are not paused in Advanced settings

Also - run a virus check. I've seen a infected computer before where the malware had disabled updates - some malware does that so the dodgy files dont get overwritten.

Thanks, but I've managed to fix it. I discovered that the "Windows Update" entry was missing from its place in 'Services' and after a bit of research found that the associated registry entries can sometimes get corrupted. Managed to find a video on youtube from a reputable source that gave a good walkthrough on how to sort it and now things are running sweetly.