Can't Install IE 10 on brand new Windows 7

I had the exact same error. 6 hours later I'm finally able to install IE 10. It turns out there are some corrupt downloaded packages and IE 10 cannot install. pkgmgr.exe is a utility to manage these packages.

This is what you need to do. (not documented anywhere of course) Run a DOS COMMAND window (CMD) as admin and type the following commands:

pkgmgr /UP:Microsoft-Windows-IE-Hyphenation-Parent-Package-English~31bf3856ad364e35~~~10.2.9200.16437

pkgmgr /UP:Microsoft-Windows-IE-Spelling-Parent-Package-English~31bf3856ad364e35~~~10.2.9200.16437

And you're going to run this on any version you find lower than the one you're trying to install (from what I see "10.2.9200.16437") and that you find here C:\Windows\servicing\Packages. These are the files that are mainly causing the issue. For example:

pkgmgr /UP:pkgmgr /up:Microsoft-Windows-InternetExplorer-Package-TopLevel~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~8.0.7601.17514

You would replace 8.0.7601.17514 with whatever file names you find on the packages folder I mentioned above.


I followed Jose Ortiz's instructions and successfully got rid of IE10 upgrade failure code 9c59, however, one correction to Jose's instructions, not only I had to pkgmgr /UP: on the lower versions of Microsoft-Windows-InternetExplorer-Package-TopLevel~* in C:\Windows\servicing\Packages but also higher version 10 ones as well. then the IE10 upgrade becomes successful

also one side effect to share, once I uninstalled the the lower versions of Microsoft-Windows-InternetExplorer-Package-TopLevel~, I was asked to restart the system, after that my IE9 dropped down to IE8. then I decided to remove the higher versions of Microsoft-Windows-InternetExplorer-Package-TopLevel~ as well, try IE10 installation one more time then it's successful


After reading @jose-ortiz's very helpful answers and the comments, I did the following when I could not upgrade from IE 10 to 11 on a Windows 7 x64 machine I was working on. I think these steps may also help someone else, regardless of whether they are trying to update to IE10 or IE11 so I'm posting them:

  1. Run the following:

    FORFILES /P %WINDIR%\servicing\Packages /M Microsoft-Windows-InternetExplorer-8..mum /c "cmd /c echo Uninstalling package @fname && start /w pkgmgr /up:@fname /norestart"

    FORFILES /P %WINDIR%\servicing\Packages /M Microsoft-Windows-InternetExplorer-9..mum /c "cmd /c echo Uninstalling package @fname && start /w pkgmgr /up:@fname /norestart"

    FORFILES /P %WINDIR%\servicing\Packages /M Microsoft-Windows-InternetExplorer-10..mum /c "cmd /c echo Uninstalling package @fname && start /w pkgmgr /up:@fname /norestart"

    FORFILES /P %WINDIR%\servicing\Packages /M Microsoft-Windows-InternetExplorer-11..mum /c "cmd /c echo Uninstalling package @fname && start /w pkgmgr /up:@fname /norestart"

    FORFILES /P %WINDIR%\servicing\Packages /M Microsoft-Windows-IE*.mum /c "cmd /c echo Uninstalling package @fname && start /w pkgmgr /up:@fname /norestart"

  2. Reboot

  3. Install all required IE 11 prerequisites updates from here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2847882/prerequisite-updates-for-internet-explorer-11

  4. Reboot

  5. Run the Windows CheckSUR program. Download and install from here: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/947821/fix-windows-update-errors-by-using-the-dism-or-system-update-readiness-tool

  6. Install IE11 using the offline installer. Google "IE 11 Offline Installer" for that download.

  7. Reboot and you should have the latest version of IE