Windows Update error code 0x80070157

Again and again we receive requests that Windows 10 users get the error code when installing Windows 10 Feature Updates (i.e.Windows 10 Version 1803 or 1809)

receive. There can be various reasons why this error occurs again and again when installing Windows 10 function updates or cumulative updates. Microsoft uses the term ” Error_External_Backing_Provider_Unknown ” for the update error 0x80070157 , which unfortunately does not provide much information either.

The error message 0x80070157 then usually looks like this.

You should try the following options to eliminate error 0x80070157.

Deactivate virus scanner

Very often with this error 0x80070157 the virus scanner is the cause of the problems. So you should briefly deactivate your virus scanner or uninstall it if necessary. Then check again whether the update process generates error code 0x80070157 again . Of course, you should definitely reactivate the virus protection after these tests so that you have reliable virus protection.

Check Windows system files

The second option is to check the integrity of the Windows system files . This works with the Windows command ” SFC “, which has numerous options. In our article ” Check and repair Windows system files “, we explained in detail how you can have your Windows installation checked for errors with the SFC command and how this also eliminates existing system errors.

The important thing is that after you run the command

SFC / scannow

restarts the Windows PC and then executes the Windows update process again. Only then can you determine whether the update error 0x80070157 continues to occur.

Clean Windows update files

Another option is to delete the Windows Update download folder “SoftwareDistribution” and create it again. The following steps are necessary. Please open a command prompt with administrative rights and enter the following commands in order.

Now all files in the ” SoftwareDistribution ” folder are deleted. However, this is not a problem either, because Windows 10 will automatically create this folder and store the newly downloaded updates in numerous subfolders. It also makes sense to delete the Catroot folder, because we have described this in detail in our article ” Deleting the Catroot & Catroot2 folder in Windows update problems “.

Then the Windows Update function has to be started again and the update error code 0x80070157 should no longer occur.

Finally, we have listed further help for other Windows Update error codes below.

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