Home › Windows Update

0x80070005

Access denied. Windows (or the installer) did not have permission to change a file, folder or registry key.

How to fix it

1. Sign in with an administrator account and try again.
2. Temporarily turn off third-party antivirus, which can lock files during updates.
3. For Windows Update, reset its components:
4. Open Command Prompt as administrator.
5. Stop the update services: net stop wuauserv, then net stop cryptSvc, then net stop bits, then net stop msiserver
6. Rename the update caches: ren C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old and ren C:\Windows\System32\catroot2 catroot2.old
7. Start the services again: net start wuauserv, net start cryptSvc, net start bits, net start msiserver
8. Restart the PC and run Windows Update again.
9. Still failing: run the repair commands DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth and sfc /scannow.

Is it serious?

Almost always a permissions or antivirus problem, not a broken PC.