Your computer restarts, shows the Windows update progress screen, gets partway through — then restarts again and starts over from the beginning. Or it finishes, reboots, and immediately tells you there are more updates to install. The loop just doesn't end.
This isn't a sign that your computer is broken. It's a specific failure pattern in Windows Update's delivery system, and there's a reliable way out of it.
Why Windows Update Gets Stuck in a Loop
Windows updates don't install as a single file. They arrive as a stack of components — drivers, security patches, cumulative updates, .NET framework pieces — that need to install in a specific order and register correctly with the Windows component store before the system moves on.
When one component fails to register properly, Windows doesn't always know how to handle it cleanly. Instead of stopping and showing an error, it sometimes rolls back to a previous state and tries again — which produces the loop. The underlying cause is almost always one of these three things:
A corrupted update cache Windows stores downloaded update files in a temporary folder before installing them. If a file in that folder is corrupted or incomplete, the installer keeps using the broken file in every attempt, which is why rebooting alone never fixes the loop.
A conflicting driver or third-party software Security software, driver management tools, and some system utilities can interfere with the update installation process at a step that Windows Update isn't designed to handle gracefully — causing a silent failure that triggers the restart loop.
A damaged Windows component store The Windows Component Store (WinSxS) tracks every installed Windows component and their dependencies. If this store has an integrity issue, updates that depend on registering new components can fail silently and loop.
Step-by-Step Fix
Step 1 — Boot into Safe Mode first
Before doing anything else, restart your computer into Safe Mode. Hold Shift while clicking Restart, then go to Troubleshoot > Advanced options > Startup Settings > Restart, and press 4. Safe Mode loads Windows without third-party software and drivers, which eliminates the most common interference source. If the update installs cleanly in Safe Mode, a third-party program was the cause.
Step 2 — Clear the Windows Update cache
This is the fix that resolves the majority of update loops. Open an elevated Command Prompt by searching "cmd," right-clicking, and selecting Run as administrator. Then run the following commands one at a time, pressing Enter after each:
net stop wuauserv
net stop cryptSvc
net stop bits
net stop msiserver
ren C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old
ren C:\Windows\System32\catroot2 catroot2.old
net start wuauserv
net start cryptSvc
net start bits
net start msiserver
This stops the Windows Update service, renames the corrupted cache folder so Windows creates a fresh one, then restarts the service. Restart your computer after running these commands, then try Windows Update again.
Step 3 — Run the System File Checker and DISM tool
If Step 2 alone doesn't resolve it, open an elevated Command Prompt again and run this command first:
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth
Wait for this to complete — it can take 10 to 20 minutes and will appear to stall at certain percentages. Let it finish without closing the window.
Once that's done, run this second command:
sfc /scannow
Restart when both complete. These tools repair the Windows Component Store and replace corrupted system files, which addresses the deeper cause if the cache clear alone wasn't enough.
Step 4 — Install the problematic update manually
If a specific update keeps failing, go to catalog.update.microsoft.com, search for the KB number of the failing update (visible in Windows Update history under View update history), and download the standalone installer directly. Installing it manually bypasses the Windows Update delivery system entirely and often succeeds when the automatic process keeps looping.
Pro Tip: Check the CBS Log to Find Exactly Which Update Is Failing
Most people try fixes blindly without knowing which specific update is causing the loop. Windows keeps a detailed log of every update action in a file called CBS.log, located at this path on your computer: C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log
Open this file in Notepad and press Ctrl+F to search for the word "failed." The entries marked as failed will show you the exact KB number and component name that's causing the loop — which means you can go directly to that specific update on the Microsoft Update Catalog instead of troubleshooting everything at once.
This single step cuts your troubleshooting time significantly because you're not guessing which update is the problem. You know exactly what to target.
If Nothing Works
If all of the above fails, the most reliable remaining option is the Windows Update Assistant, available at microsoft.com/software-download/windows11 (or windows10, depending on your version). This tool handles the update process independently of your existing Windows Update installation and can complete upgrades that the built-in updater cannot.
As a last resort, a repair install — also called an in-place upgrade — reinstalls Windows over itself without deleting your files or programs, and resets the Windows Update system to a clean state in the process.
Last updated: June 2026. Steps are based on Windows 10 and Windows 11. Paths and menu locations may vary slightly on older versions.
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