The full process outlined by Microsoft is a bit more involved but success has been found with townsbg's ideas and I usually do similar to his idea.
I do
Go to start search box and type
cmd
Right click and select run as administrator
In the box that opens type
net stop wuauserv
press enter
type
ren c:\windows\softwaredistribution sd.old
press enter
type
net start wuauserv
press enter
restart computer
What this does
Windows updates are kept in a folder called Software Distribution
This series of commands stops Windows update service
Renames the software distribution folder to softwaredistribution.old
restarts the Windows update service
When you restart the computer the software distribution folder is recreated.
Windows will look again for updates
Microsoft say to do the following
Stop the BITS service, the Windows Update service, and the Cryptographic service.
To do this, at a command prompt, type the following commands.
Make sure that you press Enter after you type each command.
net stop bits
net stop wuauserv
net stop appidsvc
net stop cryptsvc
Then delete the qmgr*.dat files.
To do this, at a command prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter
Del "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\Network\Downloader\qmgr*.dat"
Rename the softare distribution folders backup copies. To do this, at a command prompt, type the following commands. Make sure that you press Enter after you type each command.
Ren %systemroot%\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.bak
Ren %systemroot%\system32\catroot2 catroot2.bak
Reset the BITS service and the Windows Update service to the default security descriptor. To do this, at a command prompt, type the following commands. Make sure that you press Enter after you type each command.
sc.exe sdset bits DA;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;SY)(A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;BA)(A;;CCLCSWLOCRRC;;;AU)(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;PU)
sc.exe sdset wuauserv DA;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;SY)(A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;BA)(A;;CCLCSWLOCRRC;;;AU)(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;PU)
At a command prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter:
cd /d %windir%\system32
Reregister the BITS files and the Windows Update files. To do this, at a command prompt, type the following commands. Make sure that you press Enter after you type each command.
regsvr32.exe atl.dll
regsvr32.exe urlmon.dll
regsvr32.exe mshtml.dll
regsvr32.exe shdocvw.dll
regsvr32.exe browseui.dll
regsvr32.exe jscript.dll
regsvr32.exe vbscript.dll
regsvr32.exe scrrun.dll
regsvr32.exe msxml.dll
regsvr32.exe msxml3.dll
regsvr32.exe msxml6.dll
regsvr32.exe actxprxy.dll
regsvr32.exe softpub.dll
regsvr32.exe wintrust.dll
regsvr32.exe dssenh.dll
regsvr32.exe rsaenh.dll
regsvr32.exe gpkcsp.dll
regsvr32.exe sccbase.dll
regsvr32.exe slbcsp.dll
regsvr32.exe cryptdlg.dll
regsvr32.exe oleaut32.dll
regsvr32.exe ole32.dll
regsvr32.exe shell32.dll
regsvr32.exe initpki.dll
regsvr32.exe wuapi.dll
regsvr32.exe wuaueng.dll
regsvr32.exe wuaueng1.dll
regsvr32.exe wucltui.dll
regsvr32.exe wups.dll
regsvr32.exe wups2.dll
regsvr32.exe wuweb.dll
regsvr32.exe qmgr.dll
regsvr32.exe qmgrprxy.dll
regsvr32.exe wucltux.dll
regsvr32.exe muweb.dll
regsvr32.exe wuwebv.dll
Reset Winsock. To do this, at a command prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter:
netsh winsock reset
at a command prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter:
netsh winhttp reset proxy
Restart the BITS service, the Windows Update service, and the Cryptographic service. To do this, at a command prompt, type the following commands. Make sure that you press Enter after you type each command.
net start bits
net start wuauserv
net start appidsvc
net start cryptsvc
Windows Vista only: Clear the BITS queue. To do this, at a command prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter:
bitsadmin.exe /reset /allusers
Install the latest Windows Update Agent.
Restart the computer.
