2025-11-26

Windows Update fails with 0x800F0983 - the way to the solution

Recently we noticed a number of computers that refused to install the latest Windows 11 24H2/25H2 cummulative update and were throwing error 0x800F0983 - which at this time was KB5068861.

If you search the internet the issue appears to be very common but noone seems to have an actual solution for the problem. Instead they are all telling you to reinstall Windows, to do an Inplace Update, to run a repair installation ...

That is not a solution for me - that is giving up. Especially on multiple remote computers. So instead I tried figuring out what was actually preventing these updates from getting installed.