A Windows Update that sits frozen at a percentage — 0%, 47%, whatever number it picked this time — is one of the most common Windows complaints there is. Before you assume the worst, work through these steps in order.
First, actually wait
Large updates can sit at the same percentage for 20-30 minutes while working in the background, especially on slower drives. If it’s been under half an hour, let it run before doing anything else.
Run the built-in troubleshooter
Go to Settings > System > Troubleshoot > Other troubleshooters, and run Windows Update. It automatically fixes a range of common causes, including corrupted update components, without you needing to know what actually went wrong.
Restart the Windows Update service
Open the Start menu, type services.msc, and press Enter. Find Windows Update in the list, right-click it, and choose Restart. This clears a stuck update process without requiring a full reboot.
Clear the update cache manually
If the troubleshooter doesn’t help, stop the Windows Update service (same services.msc window), then delete the contents of C:WindowsSoftwareDistributionDownload, and restart the service. This forces Windows to re-download the update files fresh instead of reusing potentially corrupted ones.
Check your disk space
Major updates need several gigabytes of free space to install. Go to Settings > System > Storage and confirm you have at least 15-20GB free before trying again.
Last resort: force a restart
If it’s genuinely been stuck for hours with no progress at all, a hard restart (holding the power button) is safe in most cases — Windows Update is designed to resume or roll back cleanly. Just avoid doing this while a progress bar shows active installation percentages climbing normally.