Windows 10 Update drops error 0x80070490

[German]Windows 10 users may fascing an updates install error 0x80070490. A blog reader recently pointed out a case for this issues with November and December 2019 cumulative updates and outlined how he could solve this.

The error code can occur with all versions of Windows – and I had already mentioned this issue several times within my German blog.

The error description

German blog reader Tobias Husmann informed me about this topic by e-mail on 20 December 2019. He observed a strange behavior on several PCs, which he could not make a rhyme to. But on 20.12.2019 he could solve the problem. The problem:

The PCs no longer install Cumulative Updates (neither 2019-10, 11 or 12) because they simply fail with error code 0x80070490.

Tobias wrote that they have tested a lot of things but have not been successful. This included running the troubleshooting wizard under aka.ms/wudiag, renaming the Software Distribution directory, etc. Tobias mentioned also: Feature upgrades and InPlace upgrades could no longer be installed on at least one affected PC. Neither the 1903 nor 1909 activation package, nor the MediaCreationTool, mounted ISO or USB stick could not be installed as InPlace upgrades..

The error code 0x80070490

The error code 0x80070490 stands for E_ELEMENT_NOT_FOUND or similar, meaning that an item required to install the update is not found in the package. This indicates that the update package is corrupt. Most of the time, Microsoft has corrupted packages if the above methods do not help.

Diagnostics NetFX is the cause

Tobias wrote that the Powershell Get-WindowsUpdateLog couldn't find anything useful either. The solution for his problems was a look into the log file C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log where you could find something like this

2019-12-03 10:22:11, Info                  CBS    Failed to resolve package:Microsoft-Windows-NetFx3-OnDemand-Package~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.18362.1 [HRESULT = 0x80070490 – ERROR_NOT_FOUND]

The .net Framework 3 package was installed on all affected Windows clients. But not all systems where .net Framework 3.x was installed will return the update error.

The workaround

At that time Tobias found a workaround for this issue. The solution was to disable the NetFx3 package with the following command:

Dism /online /Disable-Feature /FeatureName:NetFx3

Afterwards the installation of the update KB4522355 was done, which worked fine. Afterwards he activated the NetFx3 package again with the following command.

Dism /online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:NetFx3

This approach has been described here in the blog at other places to solve an update installation error. Tobias writes: After installing the KB, a reboot is required. But you can reinstall the feature before. Feature upgrades will work again afterwards. Afterwards Tobias wrote me a few days ago:

Now I had 2 copies left. On one of them, Windows 10 1909 could be installed using an activation package, but the updates mentioned above (only for 1909 instead of 1903) failed again afterwards.

With both copies I needed a restart between deactivating and reactivating the NetFx3.

The question is whether the next cumulative updates in January will work with the problematic boxes or whether something like that should be necessary again.

At this point, thanks to Tobias and the question if anyone else is affected? Let's see if the problem will reappear in January 2020.

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