Troubleshoot error 80070103 when updating Windows

The Windows Update Center constantly alerts the user to new driver packages that need to be installed. Often, everything runs smoothly, almost without any intervention from the owner of the PC, but sometimes there is an error 80070103 in the form of a window with a warning message that the installation failed, and also advice: restart the computer. But, unfortunately, restarting the OS will lead to nothing, and the new installation attempt will again be unsuccessful. The "troubleshooting" that Windows offers also rarely gives the desired result.

Fix 80070103 error when updating Windows.

Causes of Error 80070103

The reasons for the error 80070103 are not so many:

  • The system bot was mistaken and downloaded the drivers from the previous package, which are already installed and functioning at the moment;
  • a lot of cache has accumulated in the Windows Update Center;
  • The OS of the existing version cannot work with new drivers for some technical reasons.

In any of these cases, you will receive a message about a failed installation.

How To Fix Error 80070103

When you see the code 80070103 with an error message when updating Windows 7, 8 or 10, and it appears as a constant, on an ongoing basis, you need to fix it somehow. Two ways can help:

  • restart Update Center;
  • reset automatic reception of updates.

Restarting the "Update Center"

Often, the system fails, and some services have to be restarted. In our case, this should be done with the "Update Center".

  1. Open "Search" and enter: "Command line".
  2. Right-click on the program icon that appears and select "Run as administrator".
  3. Now we sequentially ask:
    • net stop bits (+ “Enter”);
    • net stop wuauserv (+ “Enter”);
    • net stop appidsvc (+ “Enter”);
    • net stop cryptsvc (+ “Enter”).
  4. Thus, we interrupt the work of the Update Center components. Now it needs to be resumed, for which we write all the same commands, only instead of the word “stop” we insert “start”.
  5. After that, you need to restart the PC and see if the updates are installed normally. Sometimes you need to restart with cleaning temporary files. For this:
  6. In the command line, stop the bits and wuauserv services (via the command with the word “stop”, as shown above).
  7. Then we write:
    • attrib -r -s -h / s / d "% SYSTEMROOT% \ SoftwareDistribution" (+ "Inter");
    • del "% SYSTEMROOT% \ SoftwareDistribution" / q / s (+ "Inter").
  8. Now we start these two services again using the word “start”.

Recheck the work of the "Center" again to make sure that no errors occur anymore.

Turn off automatic driver update

If you are unable to resolve the error in the Windows Update Center, you can disable automatic packet reception. In general, experts do not recommend relying on the work of the “Update Center”, in any case if you want to receive actual packages for connected removable equipment (printer, pen tablet, etc.). It is much better to download them yourself from the site of the manufacturer of devices. Of course, in this case, it will take a lot of time to keep track of updates on different resources, but this way you will avoid problems.

  1. On the Windows site there is an add-on Show or Hide Updates, thanks to which you can turn off automatic packet reception if errors occur with them. Download the software and run it.
  2. Click the first “Hide Updates” button.
  3. The system itself will provide you with a list of those that can not be established by the "Center". Put a check mark in front of each and click "Next".

There is another way to disable:

  1. Type in "Search": "Device Manager".
  2. Find there a device whose drivers are not installed for unknown reasons, and an error occurs with Windows Update under code 80070103. Right-click it and view the Details tab in the "Properties" section.
  3. Here you need to copy the "equipment ID".
  4. Now type in “Search”: “Run” and open the application.
  5. Enter in the line: “gpedit.msc” (without quotes) and press “Enter”.
  6. Here you need to follow the path: Computer Configuration / Administrative Templates / System / Device Installation / Device Installation Restrictions.
  7. Among the proposed actions, you need to select the device codes.
  8. In the window that appears, check the box next to Included and click Show.
  9. Paste the copied ID into the next window.

And one more way, if the first two don't suit you:

  1. Enter in the "Search": "Control Panel" and open the application.
  2. Follow the links: "System and Security" - "System" and click on the right "Change settings".
  3. A small window will appear in front of you - click on the “Hardware” button and then “Device Installation Settings” and refuse to automatically download updates.

To apply the changes, restart the computer. The error should disappear if you use one of these methods.