Microsoft released Windows 10 Technical Preview in the year 2014. It was not officially announced at that time. Microsoft took a year to build the Final Version of Windows 10 and it was released on July 29, 2015.
While upgrading the Operating System to Windows 10, a majority of people are getting an unpleasing issue where up-gradation process hangs on 32%. According to Microsoft, at first 30% of Windows installation setup, updates are being downloaded to the PC and after that, PC starts installing those updates. This issue doesn’t arise while installing a clean copy of Windows 10 using a Removable Media like USB. It only arises while upgrading the previous version of Windows to Windows 10.
This issue doesn’t let the users to upgrade their Windows and when users try to restart their PCs, they are reverted back to their previous version of Windows. This is really annoying and time wasting process.
Method # 1: Windows Update Troubleshoot
1) At first, you should run a Windows application called Windows Update Troubleshooter. You can find this on the following URL. After downloading the file, run it as an administrator with the default program and select Windows Update from the list. Click Next and it would start troubleshooting.
2) After the troubleshooting process, disable the network whether it is WiFi or LAN. Every connection should be shut down before proceeding to the next step. You can do this by holding win key and press r; then typing ncpa.cpl and right click your network connections and choose Disable. Same procedure will be used to re-enable them; if you find it complicated; turn off your WiFi or Router and that will automatically disconnect you from the internet.
3) Create a Windows 10 bootable USB again using free softwares like RUFUS or Windows 7 USB/DVD Tool. Make sure that all the files are written properly otherwise, you would end up with the same issue.
4) Now, open the Command Prompt (Admin) by right clicking over the start menu icon and selecting the Command Prompt. Type the below mentioned code inside command prompt and press Enter
rundll32.exe pnpclean.dll,RunDLL_PnpClean /DRIVERS /MAXCLEAN
This code will clean up the driver packages inside Windows in order to help you move forward towards installing Windows 10.
Now everything is good to go. Restart your PC and boot your PC through the bootable USB drive you created before. Run the installation by following the instructions and you would be stunned to see that it works.
Method # 2: Check External Drives
The first and the most anticipated method of solving this issue is to unplug any external device connected to the PC through USB. A number of times, these external USB devices create a conflict inside Windows. During the up-gradation of Windows to Windows 10, this conflict restricts the process to move forward and it sticks at 32%.
After removing the USB devices, restart your PC to upgrade Windows again. If this issue was due to the conflict between Windows and USB devices, then this time, it won’t restrict the process. As a result, you get your new Windows 10 on the PC.
Method # 3: Restart Services
The second method would look quite interesting but it also works most of the time if you are trying to update using Windows Update. In this case, all you need to do is to disable your internet connection whether it is WiFi or LAN when the download reaches 100%. Disabling the internet would restrict the setup to download further files including language packs. Windows would upgrade to the latest version without being stuck at 32%.
Use the following method if you are upgrading the Windows using Windows update.
1. Open the Command Prompt (Admin) window by right clicking on the start menu icon or you can press Win + X as a shortcut key to open it.
2. Now, you need to stop some services by typing the following code inside Command Prompt. Hit Enter after typing each line of code.
net stop wuauserv net stop cryptSvc net stop bits net stop msiserver
3. After typing and hitting the Enter after each line of code, you have to rename two folders called SoftwareDistribution and Cartroot2. Just type the code below for this purpose. Also remember to Hit Enter after each line of code.
ren C:WindowsSoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old ren C:WindowsSystem32catroot2 Catroot2.old
4. After renaming the folders, restart the services again which you stopped by writing a few line of code at the second step. Type the following code.
net start wuauserv net start cryptSvc net start bits net start msiserver
Now, all the difficult stuff is gone. Just type Exit in the Command Prompt and hit Enter. Restart your PC and try updating again.
I would appreciate if you let us know which method has worked if any; and if nothing worked for you so we can improve our guide.
