Windows Update Error 0x800B0101, Installer encountered an error

Windows users when trying to update their computer by Windows Update Standalone Installer or any when trying to install a different Windows component through Windows Installer may at times see the following error.

Windows Update Standalone Installer
Installer encountered an error: 0x800B0101
A required certificate is not within its validity period when verifying against the current system clock or the timestamp in the signified file.

In this article, we will use some simple solutions to fix Windows Update Error 0X800B0101 on Windows 11/10.

Fix Windows Update Error 0X800B0101

You will most often see this error if the date and time on your computer are incorrect. However, there are some other solutions as well, which we will see hereinafter.

These are the things you can do to fix Windows Update Error 0x800B0101 on Windows 11/10.

1. Correct the Date & Time
2. Clear SoftwareDistribution folder contents
3. Clear catroot2 folder contents
4. Clear pending.xml file
5. Run SFC and DISM

Let us talk about them in detail.

1] Correct Date & Time

Self-explanatory from the error message itself, this error is because of an incorrect date & time. Therefore, we need to correct both these entities and see if it fixes the issue.

You can follow the given steps to correct the date & time.

1. Launch Run(Win + R), type “timedate.cpl”, and hit Enter.
2. Go to the Internet Time tab and click Change Settings.
3. Make sure that “Synchronize with an Internet time server”, Server is set to time.windows.com, and click Ok.
4. Go to the Date & Time tab, click Change time zone, and make sure the time zone is set correctly.

Now, reboot your computer and check if the issue persists.

2] Clear SoftwareDistribution folder content

If changing date and time is to no avail, try clearing SoftwareDistribution folder contents and check if the issue is fixed.

Launch Command Prompt as an administrator, and run the following command to pause the Windows Update service.

net stop wuauserv

Now, run the following command to pause Background Intelligent Transfer Service

net stop bits

Hit Win + R, paste the following location, and hit Enter.

C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution

Delete all the content of the SoftwareDistribution folder and check if the issue persists.

3] Clear Cartoot2 folder content

If the issue persists, try clearing Cartoot2 folder content. Do this and check if the issue persists.

4] Clear pending.xml file

Open an elevated Command Prompt window, type the following, and hit Enter:

Ren c:\windows\winsxs\pending.xml pending.old

This will rename the pending.xml file to pending.old. Now try again.

5] Run SFC and DISM

The error can be because of a corrupted system file and running SFC and DISM will fix the issue. So, launch Command Prompt as an administrator and run the following commands one after the other is completed.

sfc /scannow

Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

After running these commands, check if the issue persists.

Why does my Windows 11/10 Update keep failing?

There can be many reasons why Windows Update keeps failing. Corrupted updated file, driver conflict, multiple updated queued, and more. But if you are seeing error 0x800B0101, you can fix the error with the aforementioned solutions.

How to update Windows 11?

The best way to update Windows 11 is via the Settings app. Launch Settings by Win + I, and go to Update & Security > Check for updates. This way you can update your computer if there is an update available.