The most important thing we need to know to be able to solve a problem in Windows is the error that causes it, since Microsoft has a list of error codes to be able to easily identify them. This in particular is an error that appears when we download new updates on our computer, although its appearance can be due to several different problems, among which we can find problems with corrupted files or conflicts between hardware and drivers. Below we give you a series of tips and steps so that you can solve it without having to go to an expert.
Try restarting and updating again.
As we have told you a little above, this error 0x800700a1 can occur for certain limited reasons, but that does not prevent us from solving it with one of the most used tools in computing: Restart the system.
Before we get into more complex solutions, we strongly recommend that you try restarting your computer and try run Windows Update below. This solution is usually very effective in most cases, but if it doesn’t work for you, keep reading.
Free up space on your hard drive
The Windows updates that we apply to our computer force us to download some files in order to apply them. This, of course, makes it necessary to have enough space on our hard driveand the absence of this can be a very common cause of this error.
If you only have one hard drive on your computer, or you have several with very little space, you should try delete unnecessary files to have some more site to download the necessary files to update your Windows.
Unplug peripherals you don’t need
Although not as common as the issue of hard drive space, a hardware or driver incompatibility One of these may also be the reason that we cannot successfully update our operating system.
To update your computer you will need only the keyboard and mouse, so unplug all other peripherals that you have connected. It does not matter if it is a speaker or a microphone, remove them all and try to update again.
Use the Windows troubleshooter
Microsoft is well aware that errors that occur in Windows can be difficult to fix for those without the tools or knowledge. For those cases (or simply because it is also more comfortable) it is Windows Troubleshooter.
This in fact has a tool specially designed to solve problems related to the installation of Windows. To access it, just follow these steps:
- Access Settings with the keyboard shortcut Windows + I
- You can also enter the word Configuration in the search engine
- Click on Update and security
- Inside, we will go to the Troubleshoot section on the left side of the screen
- In the next window, tap Additional troubleshooters
- Access Windows Update in the new window
Reinicia Windows Update Services
Another somewhat more complex solution is restart Windows Update services. If these services are not working properly, it is more than likely that your computer will experience an error whenever you try to update it. To do this, do the following:
- Use the keyboard shortcut Windows + R
- Type in the window that appears «services.msc» and press Enter
- Find Windows Update and right-click on it
- Change the startup type to Automatic
- Click Start under Service Status
- Click Apply and OK
Try running DISM
The 0x800700a1 error can also be due to a component of our equipment that is damaged or not working properly. To solve this, we can try to run a DISM scan, something that will cause the error to be detected and corrected automatically. For it:
- Writes CMD in the windows search engine
- On the Command Prompt icon, right-click and run as administrator
- Once the box appears on the screen, enter “DISM.exe /Online /cleanup-image /Restorehealth”.
Delete everything inside this folder
You may not know it, but all the files that are related to your operating system updates are stored in one folder. This one, which is called SoftwareDistributionyou may have a problem that is what is showing you the error 0x800700a1 on the screen.
If the problem is here, we will have to delete all the files in this folder, but it is not as simple as looking for it and simply deleting it. Follow these steps:
- Access Command Prompt as an administrator (same steps as above)
- Type the following commands: “net stop wuauserv” and “net stop bits”
- You must press Enter after entering each one
- Press the shortcut Windows + E to open Explorer
- Go to the following location: WindowsSoftwareDistribution
- Select everything you see in the folder and delete it
- If it appears that a file is in use and you can’t delete it, restart your computer and try again.
- Reopen Command Prompt as administrator
- Enter the following commands: “net start wuauserv” and “net start bits”
- Reboot your system and try to update again
Check the date and time
It may sound strange to you, but if our computer is showing wrong date or time we may have some performance issues. One of them, of course, can be a problem updating Windows. This error is a fairly simple one, so it’s not hard to miss. To solve it, we will only have to do the following:
- Access Configuration with Windows + I
- Select Time and language
- Choose Date and Time
- Disable to update the time automatically
- Click Change to set the data manually
- Restart your computer and try to update
Try a clean boot
We come to the last tool or process to try to fix this annoying Windows error. It may happen that some processes or applications are directly interfering with Windows Update, so we will not be able to update our system. To do this, the best we can try is to do what is called a clean boot:
- Press the Windows + R shortcut and type msconfig
- Check Selective startup, and choose Load system services
- Switch to the Services tab
- Check the option Hide all Microsoft services
- Click on the option Disable all
- Click Apply
- Now, type Task Manager in the search engine and access it
- Look in the Startup tab for all the applications that start with your computer and are unnecessary
- Click on each one and select Disable
- restart your computer
