TL;DR — Quick Summary

Fix and troubleshoot Error 0x800B0100 when you try to install Windows Updates or Microsoft Updates. Step-by-step solution for Windows Server 2012.

Note: This article was originally published in 2014. Some steps, commands, or software versions may have changed. Check the current Windows 8 documentation for the latest information.

Resolve: Error 0x800B0100 when installing Windows Updates

If you are trying to install a large batch of Windows Updates (especially on older OS versions like Windows 8, Server 2012, or even Windows 10) and the installation halts with the error code 0x800B0100, you are dealing with a corruption in the Windows Update Store.

Often, research online will point towards manually repairing the Microsoft Update Database or downloading offline installers, but these rarely work. The most successful approach to fixing 0x800B0100 involves using the built-in Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) tool to scan and repair the OS image directly.

Here is how you can surgically fix the issue without having to reinstall your operating system.

Method 1: Using DISM via Command Prompt

To perform the repair process, you first need to perform a health scan to determine if the store is reparable and to identify all existing corruptions.

  1. Open a Command Prompt as an Administrator.

  2. Check Health: The first command checks if the system has already identified an existing corruption flag in the registry. It is a very quick scan:

    DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Checkhealth

  3. Scan Health: This command performs an in-depth analysis of the Windows component store to detect corruption. This is a read-only operation and can take around 20 minutes:

    DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth

  4. Restore Health: If the previous command found reparable corruptions, execute the precise fix command. Do not reboot or lose power during this phase, as it actively writes to system files.

    DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

Note about WSUS / Custom Sources: If you configure your Windows Updates via a local WSUS server and the WSUS master image itself is corrupted, DISM won’t be able to fetch clean files to repair your system. You may need to specify an external source using the /Source switch.

Method 2: Using PowerShell Native Commands

If you prefer using PowerShell cmdlets instead of the legacy DISM executable, Windows provides direct equivalents.

  1. Open Windows PowerShell as Administrator.

  2. Execute the commands below sequentially:

    # 1. Quick registry check for known corruption flags
Repair-WindowsImage -Online -CheckHealth

# 2. Deep read-only scan of the component store
Repair-WindowsImage -Online -ScanHealth

# 3. Actively repair corrupted component files
Repair-WindowsImage -Online -RestoreHealth

Reviewing the Logs

As you would expect, DISM logs the results of its operations so you can see exactly which payloads were corrupted. You can safely copy and investigate the following two logs:

  • CBS Log: C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log
  • DISM Log: C:\Windows\Logs\DISM\dism.log

If you open these logs, you’ll see a clear summary block at the bottom detailing exactly what was fixed:

Summary: 
Operation result: 0x0 
Last Successful Step: CSI store detection completes. 
Total Detected Corruption: 7 
CBS Manifest Corruption: 2 
CBS Metadata Corruption: 0 
Total Repaired Corruption: 7 
CSI Store Metadata refreshed: True 
Total Operation Time: 1685 seconds.

After the RestoreHealth completes successfully, restart your server and try running Windows Update again. The 0x800B0100 error should be fully resolved.