I know it is quite a controversial, maybe stupid, question but I am asking because I want reaffirmation from more knowledgeable people and my Windows update constantly fails to install most of the updates it gives. I have tried the tips about deleting softwaredistribution/download folder and check for updates, ive done it in safe mode and in my admin account, but most of the updates still fails, and the only way to find out is by opening the update in settings, there has been no warnings that important updates has failed. One should be able to trust windows doing its job if it were that important. This has been going on for months now and I just dont want to go through all the hazzle of reinstalling windows 10 from scratch again. I´m so tired of doing that. Or is there any malware (that Kaspersky dont find after it is installed) that do sabotage windows update? There would be a valid reason tor wipe everything and reinstall, not because windows messes things up by itself. So, If I just use a decent malware software wouldnt that be enough? Obviously one cant rely on Windows handling the security. I have no risky surfing/email behavior any more and I run as a standard user and use sandboxie for emails and browsing.
Before you make a decision, try resetting the windows update agent. It may help in cleaning up those WU failures. https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/Reset-Windows-Update-Agent-d824badc FWIW: I think updates are important. All Windows versions are vulnerable to attack and 3rd party security software can only do so much.
emmjay: thanks for the batch file it has finally got one of my windows 7 installs updates running again after plenty of failed attempts via googling
It's not recommended of course to not install updates, because it makes you more vulnerable to Windows kernel exploits. However, I've used an unpatched Win XP machine for 8 years, and never got infected. So this means it's probably not that easy to exploit systems that are protected with AE/HIPS/sandbox.
my bad, not in windows 10. not sure, my win 10 shows nothing in perfmon. start the "reliability monitor": perfmon /rel START > Execute where you see the red cross and in "summary" -> "Windows Update..." click on details - there you should find an error code 0x8....
I have not had the time to test the suggestions yet. I will post any results as soon as I have tested it.