Windows Update Error code 80246007 on Windows 7

I have tried applying Windows Updates for .NET Framework security updates and was hitting failures on Windows 7 with error code 0x80246007. If I View the error details from Windows Update History I saw the following error codes:


For Windows update failure log (View Details):

Security Update for Microsoft .NET Framework 4 on XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7, Server 2008, Server 2008 R2 for x64 (KB2804576)
Installation status: Failed
Error details: Code 80246007

...

Searching for this error on Microsoft Windows support site I only found the following KB article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958042/en-us
Unfortunately, the article does not apply to Windows 7 specifically. Searching for the error code and Windows 7 brought up no additional results. What to do?


Disclaimer: I am not an expert on Windows system administration, I make no claims to be able to solve your individual problem nor advise you to not follow normal support paths for your issue. If you use any of my suggestions you do so at your own risk.

Reading the knowledge base article, the cause is described as:

This problem may occur if the Windows Update database is corrupted.

Under resolution there are the same steps to resolve for Window Vista and  Windows Server 2008. Broadly speaking, these OSes are similar to Windows 7 in many respects. So I attempted to follow the steps, which involve writing a small batch script to stop the Windows Update service,  wuauserv rename the Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download folder and restart the Windows update and bits service.

I tried the instructions as described. Received access denied for every line of the batch script. I then tried running from a Command window I had 'Run as Administrator'.  I still got the access denied error on renaming the Download folder. So I just manually renamed via Windows Explorer, and reran the script.

 

The next time I ran Windows Update for the update which failed I then hit error 80070002 for one update.

This time Windows Help advised to delete data from Windows\SoftwareDistribution\DataStore as well as \Download folder, and to just restart Windows Update service.

Read the full solution: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Windows-Update-error-80070002

This finally solved my issue. My guess is that these steps would apply to either 80070002 or 80246007 error codes on Windows 7.

I recommend if you hit this issue, to comment on the KB 958042 page above and let Microsoft know they need to update the KB for Windows 7.