Windows Update error 0x80070006
I have had this issue on my work PC and found that errors reporting an invalid handle can arise from Windows Update running in its own process.
You can try checking if Windows Update is running in its own process, and if it is, set it to share
and reboot.
To check if it is in its own process, you can run sc query wuauserv
in an elevated command prompt, and check what TYPE
is reported. For example, one that is is set to run as its own process will look like this:
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.14393]
(c) 2016 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
C:\WINDOWS\system32>sc query wuauserv
SERVICE_NAME: wuauserv
TYPE : 10 WIN32_OWN_PROCESS
STATE : 4 RUNNING
(STOPPABLE, NOT_PAUSABLE, ACCEPTS_SHUTDOWN)
WIN32_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0)
SERVICE_EXIT_CODE : 0 (0x0)
CHECKPOINT : 0x0
WAIT_HINT : 0x0
To set it to shared (as it should be), run sc config wuauserv type= share
, then reboot your PC (reboot is necessary because of some issue with SIDs not being correct without bringing down the shared process).
Once done, Windows Update should be working (provided there is nothing else wrong with it) and running sc query wuauserv
should return a TYPE
of 20 WIN32_SHARE_PROCESS
.