How to solve the issues of wuauclt.exe/updatenow appearing to do nothing
I have been trying to force Windows 7 to upgrade to Windows 10 using the the following steps:
- Delete all files in C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download.
- Run the command prompt as administrator. (Right click the Command Prompt icon and select ‘Run as Administrator’)
- Type in ‘wuauclt.exe/updatenow’ without the quotes.
- Hit Enter
Nothing happened. I was puzzled as I had already run these steps successfully on a PC running Windows 8.1 and it worked flawlessly. No matter what I did or how up to date my updates were wuauclt didn’t seem to do anything. However after some hunting around I found the solution:
Open the registry editor (regedit.exe) and locate the registry key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\OSUpgrade]
It should exist, but if not, create it.
Create a new DWORD (32-bit) Value with Name = “AllowOSUpgrade” (without the quotes), and set the Value = 0x00000001 – you actually just need to enter 00000001, 0x is added by the editor.
Now, run through the steps above once more and Windows 10 should begin to download. I hope that saves you from the frustration that I suffered. Full details on how to force Windows 10 upgrade and this solution can be found here.