Error code 0x8000ffff occurs rel­a­tive­ly fre­quent­ly in Windows systems because it can refer to errors in many different locations within the system instead of one specific error. Error 0x8000ffff is usually caused by problems with third-party programs and not by corrupted or missing Windows com­po­nents. In most cases, third-party antivirus software is the cause of the “un­ex­pect­ed error.”

Note

Be careful when googling Windows error messages. The first page of search results often includes un­trust­wor­thy websites offering more un­trust­wor­thy software that claims to fix the error you're searching for. In fact, it’s not uncommon for hackers to spread their malware this way. Never install any of these programs and always fix the error using the trou­bleshoot­ing tools provided by Microsoft, as described in this article.

Error 0x8000ffff occurs most fre­quent­ly during these three sit­u­a­tions:

  • Software in­stal­la­tion
  • System recovery
  • Windows updates

Fixing error 0x8000ffff during software in­stal­la­tion

If error 0x8000ffff occurs when you're in­stalling software, an in­com­plete uninstall is often the cause. In this case, the software you're in­stalling was pre­vi­ous­ly installed and there are still “remnants” of the in­stal­la­tion in the system. To uninstall ap­pli­ca­tions without a trace in Windows 10, do the following:

  1. Turn off third-party antivirus software or malware scanners.
  2. Close all other running ap­pli­ca­tions.
  3. Uninstall the program in the Windows settings app under Apps & Features or by right-clicking the ap­pli­ca­tion in the Start menu.
Image: Menu for uninstalling a program in the Windows settings app
Most programs can be unin­stalled in the Windows settings app.
  1. Delete the ap­pli­ca­tion data and remnants of the program in the “.\Program Files,” “.\Program Files (x86),” “.\Users\\AppData\Local” and “.\Users\\AppData\Roaming” di­rec­to­ries by deleting the folders that were created for the program.
  2. Use the Registry Editor to search for the registry entries of the program under “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software” and “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software” and remove them.
  3. Empty the following temporary di­rec­to­ries: “.\Temp,” “.\Windows\Temp” and “.\Users\\AppData\Local\Temp.”
  4. Restart your PC.

After restart­ing, turn off third-party security software again and then try to reinstall the program. This way, you can check whether the 0x8000ffff problem persists.

Fixing error 0x8000ffff during a system restore by restart­ing your PC

If error code 0x8000ffff occurs when you try to create a new system restore point or use a newly created point, restart your PC without startup programs and back­ground services. To do this, proceed as follows:

  1. In the Start menu (Windows icon), under Windows Ad­min­is­tra­tive Tools, open the System Con­fig­u­ra­tion app.
  2. In the Services tab, select “Hide all Microsoft services.”
  3. Now click “Disable All” to disable all other startup services.
  4. Go to the Startup tab and click the “Open Task Manager” link.
  5. In the “Startup” tab in the Task Manager, disable all startup services.
  6. Restart your PC.

After restart­ing, turn off all third-party antivirus software and try to create or use a system restore point. Finally, enable the services and startup programs again and restart the PC.

Fixing error 0x8000ffff during a system restore using the DISM command line program

Corrupted system files are another possible cause of error 0x80000ffff. In this case, you can repair the system using the DISM command line tool and the Windows System File Checker. Both are pre-installed trou­bleshoot­ing tools in Windows 10 and Windows 8. They are launched from the command line and have no graphical user interface, but work very ef­fi­cient­ly. In Windows 7, a special Windows Automated In­stal­la­tion Kit (AIK) has to be down­loaded and installed.

To fix the 0x8000ffff error using the command line, proceed as follows:

  1. Right-click the Windows logo in the taskbar to open the Start menu. Select “Command Prompt (Admin) or “Windows Pow­er­Shell (Admin).” Depending on your Windows con­fig­u­ra­tion, only one of these options will be displayed.
  2. Type DISM/Online/Cleanup-image/Scan­health into the command line tool and confirm by pressing the Enter key. The tool will now look for errors. This may take a few minutes. If DISM doesn't find an error, the message “No component store cor­rup­tion detected” will appear. In this case, you can skip the next step.
  3. If an error is displayed, type the command DISM/Online/Cleanup-image/Re­store­health and press Enter to confirm. The detected errors will now be repaired, which can take a while.

If a message appears notifying you that the Source files could not be found, you have to restore them from a Windows in­stal­la­tion DVD or an ISO file.

Note

If you don’t have the original Microsoft DVD, you can download and generate an ISO file using the Windows Media Creation Tool.

To restore the source files for the repair from the DVD or ISO file, type the drive path for the Windows in­stal­la­tion image in the DISM command tool:

DISM/Online/Cleanup-Image/RestoreHealth/Source:wim:X:\sources\install.wim:1/LimitAccess

Replace the drive letter “X:” with the drive letter of your DVD drive or the ISO file.

After DISM suc­cess­ful­ly completes the repair, start the System File Checker in the same Command Prompt window:

sfc /scannow

Using the trou­bleshoot­er to fix error 0x8000ffff during a Windows update

In the Windows 10 settings app via Update & Security Trou­bleshoot, you’ll find a tool called the “Trou­bleshoot­er” which au­to­mat­i­cal­ly fixes most errors in the Windows Update system. If you see error code 0x8000ffff when you perform the standard update, this tool is a quick and easy way to resolve the problem.

Note

You can open the Windows settings by choosing the Settings icon in the Start menu or by pressing the Windows key + i.

When you start the trou­bleshoot­er by clicking “Run the trou­bleshoot­er,” you just need to sit back and wait. The system ap­pli­ca­tion runs au­to­mat­i­cal­ly and requires no further action on your part. When it finishes, a message appears notifying you whether the problem could be fixed.

Image: Windows Update troubleshooter
The Windows Update trou­bleshoot­er au­to­mat­i­cal­ly finds and fixes a variety of update problems.

Fixing error 0x8000ffff using the Reset Windows Update Agent Script

Over time, Microsoft has collected various tools, registry hacks, and command line tips for trou­bleshoot­ing update errors in a Windows support database and grouped them together in a clear script. These tools will help you even if basic trou­bleshoot­ing for the Windows update in the Settings app fails.

In a clearly organized text-based menu, you’ll find tools for resetting update com­po­nents, deleting temporary files, cleaning up the registry, and checking protected system files. The Reset Windows Update Agent Script downloads and runs the latest versions of suitable tools. To use it, simply unzip the down­loaded ZIP file in a folder on your hard drive and right-click the file to run the Re­setWUEng.cmd script file as an ad­min­is­tra­tor.

Note

Always turn off all anti-malware software (except Windows Defender) because third-party security software often blocks access to critical system com­po­nents and the scripts can mistake the un­ex­pect­ed reactions of the antivirus software for actual errors in the update system.

You run the in­di­vid­ual com­po­nents of the suite by entering numbers. To resolve the 0x8000ffff error, run com­po­nents 1 through 11 one at a time. In most cases, the error will not reappear after that.

Image: Reset Windows Update AgentMikhail Mishuninshut­ter­stock
The Reset Windows Update Tool fixes an even larger range of problems during Windows updates.

Fixing the 0x8000ffff error during a Windows update using the DISM command line program

You can also use the DISM and SFC command line tools to fix error code 0x8000ffff when you perform a Windows update.

Once the error has been fixed, it doesn’t mean that an un­ex­pect­ed error with the same error code cannot occur elsewhere in the system. If you keep en­coun­ter­ing this type of error, you should uninstall your third-party security software and use only the Windows Defender or an equiv­a­lent al­ter­na­tive.

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