Windows is one of the world’s most popular operating systems – due es­pe­cial­ly to the high user-friend­li­ness as well as the broad support of third-party ap­pli­ca­tions and devices. However, just like other software, Microsoft systems are anything but perfect. Windows is known for system crashes and error messages that appear out of nowhere, ac­com­pa­nied only by cryptic error codes. The best example of this is the 0x80004005 error, which even Microsoft calls an “un­spec­i­fied” error. When does the 0x80004005 error occur and what solutions are there for fixing it?

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What’s Behind the Windows Error Code 0x80004005?

The Windows error “0x80004005” concerns a version-in­de­pen­dent error message that occurs par­tic­u­lar­ly in sit­u­a­tions in which users are denied access to an ap­pli­ca­tion, a service or a device for un­fore­see­able reasons. Possible scenarios that may result in these kinds of access problems with the error code “0x80004005” include the following:

  • In­stalling a Windows update or a program
  • Updating software
  • Es­tab­lish­ing a con­nec­tion with a network
  • Accessing a shared network resource
  • Receiving emails in Outlook
  • Starting a virtual machine
  • Unpacking a com­pressed file

Although error 0x80004005 is one of the least common Windows errors, it can happen in a range of different sit­u­a­tions. However, since the cause does not relate to a system mal­func­tion but rather defective or incorrect settings, or files affecting the relevant ap­pli­ca­tions, services or devices, there is no standard solution to the access problem. Instead, the possible solutions are de­ter­mined by the context in which the 0x80004005 error occurred.

Possible Solutions for the 0x80004005 Error When Updating Windows

If in­stalling a new Windows update doesn’t work and you see the error code “0x80004005”, you have a range of possible solutions: For example, you can use the Trou­bleshoot­er provided by Microsoft, run a check (including repairs) of system files, restart the update services or manually install the re­spec­tive update.

Solution 1: Trou­bleshoot­er

Windows 7 and Windows 8 users can download the Windows Update Trou­bleshoot­er from the Microsoft Forum. After down­load­ing it, start the trou­bleshoot­er by double-clicking on the down­loaded file (Win­dow­sUp­date.diagcab). Then, select the entry “Windows Update” and click “Next”; Windows will then start at­tempt­ing to fix the update error.

In Windows 10, the update trou­bleshoot­er can be found in the “Update and Security” menu. You can find it in the Settings which can be opened via the button with the same name in the Start menu. Once you’ve opened the “Update and Security” menu, select the “Trou­bleshoot” section in the left side menu and click on “Windows Update”. The “Run trou­bleshoot­er” button, which allows you to start the help tool, will then appear:

Image: “Windows Update” Troubleshooter in Windows 10
The Windows Update Trou­bleshoot­er enables you to not only solve error “0x80004005” but also a range of other update issues.

Solution 2: Check and Repair System Files with SFC

If the in­stal­la­tion of a Windows update is blocked, this can be due to damaged or missing system files. In this case, you can fix the issue using the command line program SFC (System File Checker), which is installed as standard on all Windows systems. However, this solution only works if you have ad­min­is­tra­tor rights. That’s because you need to run the command prompt as ad­min­is­tra­tor to start the SFC. If you meet this re­quire­ment, you can start the system check as follows:

  1. Type “cmd” into the Windows search.
  2. Select the command prompt with a right click and then click on “Run as ad­min­is­tra­tor”.
  3. Enter the command sfc /scannow and press the [Enter] key.

Solution 3: Restart Update Services

Windows uses a number of services to receive and install the updates which Microsoft regularly provides. If these services aren’t working properly, faults like the 0x80004005 error may result. For this reason, it can be a good idea to restart these services, which you can also execute via command prompt. Simply start it as an ad­min­is­tra­tor by following the steps described in the previous section. Then enter the following commands one after the other to end the services:

net stop wuauserv
net stop bits
net stop trustedinstaller
net stop appidsvc
net stop cryptsvc

Then restart the services:

net start wuauserv
net start bits
net start trustedinstaller
net start appidsvc
net start cryptsvc

Solution 4: Manually Install the Update

If error 0x80004005 still occurs in the Update Center despite your attempts to use the solutions presented here, you can try manually down­load­ing and in­stalling the relevant update. For this purpose, write down the as­so­ci­at­ed knowledge base number and enter it into the search window of the online Microsoft Update Catalog. You’ll then receive a list of the update’s in­stal­la­tion files for the various ar­chi­tec­tures. Here you only need to look for the version that’s right for you.

Image: Search results in the Microsoft Update Catalog
In the Microsoft Update Catalog, you’ll not only find all the important Microsoft software updates but also a range of hardware drivers and hotfixes.

Once the download is ready, execute the download msu file by double-clicking. Follow the in­struc­tions and then restart the PC to complete the update process.

How to Fix the 0x80004005 Error in Microsoft Outlook

If you get the error code “0x80004005” when accessing emails in the Outlook client, this is likely due to one of two reasons:

  1. Your antivirus software is blocking the retrieval of messages received.
  2. There’s a problem with no­ti­fi­ca­tions for new emails received.

You can quickly and easily check if the first case applies by tem­porar­i­ly de­ac­ti­vat­ing your security software and trying to access your messages again. If it turns out that the program is actually re­spon­si­ble for the access problem, you should contact the man­u­fac­tur­er directly or switch to a different solution.

If the problem is that the no­ti­fi­ca­tion for new emails is not working, you can solve it by de­ac­ti­vat­ing the feature. To do so, open the Outlook Options (“File” -> “Options”) and go to the “Email” category. Next, remove the checkmark for “Show desktop no­ti­fi­ca­tions” in the “Incoming Messages” section and confirm the change by clicking on “OK”.

Image: Outlook 2016: Email options
In older versions of Outlook, like 2007, you can find the no­ti­fi­ca­tion feature in the advanced email options.

Resolving Error “0x80004005” When Unpacking Files

If you want to unpack zipped files with the standard Windows tool and are con­front­ed with the error code “0x80004005”, this usually means that the archive has been com­pressed with an algorithm that’s not supported. A second possible cause is that the ZIP file is password protected. After all, the Windows program only supports ZIPCrypto and AES 128, while encrypted archive files are often based on AES 256. An easy solution is to use third-party tools like WinZip or the freely licensed 7-Zip. These programs support far more com­pres­sion and en­cryp­tion methods than the in­te­grat­ed Windows service, sig­nif­i­cant­ly in­creas­ing your chances of being able to open the file.

Image: Unpacking Files with 7-Zip
The com­pres­sion program 7-Zip is available in more than 60 different languages.

Five Steps for Fixing 0x80004005 Network Errors

Errors like “0x80004005” also often occur when using private or public networks. These errors can prevent access to the whole network or in­di­vid­ual network resources (such as shared folders or drives). One of the most frequent causes of these errors is that the client for Microsoft networks and/or file and printer sharing for Microsoft networks are not activated. To fix this problem, it’s usually enough to activate these two services by taking the following steps:

  1. Open the Control Panel via the Start menu.
  2. Click on the “Network and Sharing Center” option (symbol view).
  3. Select the prob­lem­at­ic network con­nec­tion in the section “Show active networks” and click on “Prop­er­ties” in the menu that appears.
  4. Place a checkmark for the entries “Client for Microsoft networks” and “File and printer sharing for Microsoft networks”.
  5. Save the changes by clicking on “OK”.
Image: Network and Sharing Center in Windows 10
Once you’ve opened the options for a network con­nec­tion, you can start an automatic trou­bleshoot­er via the “Diagnose” button for example.

If access to shared folders is prevented, the status of the Windows services above should also be checked for the network par­tic­i­pant who makes the re­spec­tive resources available to the network.

How to Fix 0x80004005 Errors When In­stalling or Updating Software

The error code “0x80004005” doesn’t just appear for issues with Microsoft ap­pli­ca­tions and services but also for problems with third-party software – es­pe­cial­ly when in­stalling and updating these programs. One possible reason for this can be that the file or files used for in­stalling or updating a program are damaged. If you’ve down­loaded them from the internet, you can try to download them again.

Tip

If you’re in­stalling a program or update from a data medium and encounter the error “0x80004005”, you often also have the option of down­load­ing the re­spec­tive files from the man­u­fac­tur­er’s website to start another in­stal­la­tion attempt without the po­ten­tial­ly damaged data medium.

If the problem persists, you should take a look at the security software you use. Both the Windows real-time pro­tec­tion and Windows firewall as well as cor­re­spond­ing solutions from third-party providers can block the execution of in­stal­la­tion files, for instance, causing error messages like “0x80004005”. Tem­porar­i­ly de­ac­ti­vate the re­spec­tive tools to check whether they are actually re­spon­si­ble for the error. However, first make sure that you’ve obtained the in­stal­la­tion files from a trust­wor­thy source. Otherwise, you run the risk of infecting your system with malware.

Image: Windows Defender Security Center (Windows 10)
In the Windows Defender Security Center, Windows 10 offers a complete overview of the security solutions you use (including possible settings).

Possible Solutions to the 0x80004005 Error When Using Vir­tu­al­Box

Vir­tu­al­Box is one of the best-known solutions for virtually operating any number of guest operating systems like Ubuntu or other Windows editions. But the 0x80004005 error can likewise occur when starting a con­fig­ured virtual machine. In most cases, the problem is that vir­tu­al­iza­tion software files have been lost or damaged. For these sit­u­a­tions, Vir­tu­al­Box offers a repair function that you can use by running the setup again and selecting the option “Repair”. Vir­tu­al­Box then au­to­mat­i­cal­ly replaces the faulty or missing files without requiring you delete any con­fig­ured machines.

Image: Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager
The setup files for Vir­tu­al­Box are available from the official website at any time. You can find the website link under “Help” -> “Vir­tu­al­Box Website”.

The access error when starting a Vir­tu­al­Box machine can also be the result of a driver issue: Vir­tu­al­Box works with the driver “Vir­tu­al­Box NDIS6 Bridged Net­work­ing Driver”, which must be activated in the settings for the network con­nec­tion “Vir­tu­al­Box Host-Only Network”. Open the Network and Sharing Center and check whether NDIS6 is active in the settings for this adapter. Place a checkmark in the cor­re­spond­ing line to fix the 0x80004005 error.

Image: List of configured network connections in Windows 8
The standard NDIS (Network Driver Interface Spec­i­fi­ca­tion) developed by Microsoft and 3Com describes the in­te­gra­tion of network cards in Windows systems

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