Easy Fix: Microsoft Security Essentials won’t update: Error 0x80248014

0x80248014 Error

Microsoft Security Essentials error 0x80248014 got you down? We’ve been there! We found an easy fix that should work great for you. Follow below for the simple fix.
I recently had a customer who got one of those “your hard drive is about to die” viruses. I removed the virus, fixed windows update that had been mangled, and thought he was ready to go. He called back though, and Microsoft Security Essentials would not update. It gave the error code 0x80248014. After doing some Google searches I came across a post on the Microsoft Answers website. Once I took these 4 steps it worked perfectly without even as much as a reboot.


The Fix

The 0x80248014 can be caused by the Windows Update cache needing a cleaning. This is very easy to do, and the results are usually instant. Open an Administrative command prompt by clicking Start, then type “cmd”. Right click on “Command Prompt” and click “Run As Administrator”. We’re going to turn off windows update service, clear the queue and restart it. You can copy and paste in the following commands:
net stop wuauserv
cd %windir%
ren SoftwareDistribution SDold
net start wuauserv

Now try to update Microsoft Security Essentials. It should immediately update without the 0x80248014 error. If it does not work, then you might try uninstalling Microsoft Security Essentials, running the fix again, and reinstalling it. If that still does not work, then it’s possible that the system has other errors causing Microsoft Security Essentials to fail. In that case, we recommend AVG Ultimate. You can get AVG Free, but it’ll nag you to buy it so you may as well just purchase a copy and be protected fully. Otherwise, you might consider reinstalling Windows, especially if theΒ 0x80248014 error occurred after cleaning the computer of a nasty virus.

29 comments

Skip to comment form

  1. Worked perfectly on an x86 Win7 machine. Thanks!

  2. Worked perfectly on x86 XP machine. Many thanks!

  3. I am having the same trouble with Microsoft Security Essentials not updating? When I did the cmd trick I got access denied. Now what?

    1. Hi Steve, make sure you open an Administrative command prompt. In Vista/7 click on Start, type cmd, and instead of pressing enter, right click on ‘cmd’ at the top of the start menu and click “Run As Administrator.” I’ll update the blog post. Thanks for commenting!

    2. Hi. I’m having the same issue but when I click on ‘Run as Administrator’, the command prompt only flashes for a brief moment then disappears. It’s not giving me the chance to do the steps indicated. Please help. Thanks.

    3. What version of Windows are you running?

  4. I did all the steps that you have mentioned, but it has the same problem and same error!!! what should I do now?

    1. You might just need to uninstall it and use a different antivirus program like Avast. I’ve seen some machines that would require a reload to actually get MSE working again. Its rare, but it does happen.

    • Joanne on September 24, 2014 at 5:40 am
    • Reply

    that worked like a charm. Thanks so much.

    1. Excellent! I’m so glad to hear it πŸ™‚

    • Sarawut Sangpoon on November 8, 2014 at 5:01 am
    • Reply

    It work!! thankyou verymuch

    • jonathan on April 6, 2015 at 4:52 am
    • Reply

    perfeito!

    • Dude on June 4, 2015 at 8:12 am
    • Reply

    Thanks.

    • Marius on July 23, 2015 at 11:43 pm
    • Reply

    Thanks, worked properly on W7

    • Laura on October 8, 2015 at 7:33 am
    • Reply

    Thank you, worked perfectly. Why doesn’t MS know this? Windows 7

    • Beej on January 29, 2016 at 5:08 pm
    • Reply

    Worked! Thanks so much!

    1. Great! I’m really glad to hear it πŸ™‚

    • Ahmed Moalin on April 17, 2016 at 5:22 am
    • Reply

    thanks for your help – It works perfectly

    • Bea Anders on May 10, 2016 at 8:12 am
    • Reply

    Thank you. This worked after many other attempted fixes.

    • Indika on June 19, 2016 at 7:42 am
    • Reply

    its work

    • Roechel Bautista Cruz on July 23, 2016 at 4:41 pm
    • Reply

    works on me! thanks!

    1. Glad to hear it! Thanks for the report. πŸ™‚

    • Franco on August 10, 2016 at 6:00 pm
    • Reply

    It worked perfectly… Thank you so very much…

    • Alberto on October 6, 2016 at 8:23 am
    • Reply

    It worked. Thanks so much.

    • GFB on October 29, 2016 at 4:11 am
    • Reply

    Finally got rid of this nagging/frustrating error – thank you very much!!!

    • Agostino Manni on January 21, 2017 at 3:00 pm
    • Reply

    Perfetto! Ora l’aggiornamento funziona. Grazie mille!!

    “Perfect! Now the update works. Thanks so much!!”

    • Miguel on July 6, 2017 at 2:37 pm
    • Reply

    perfect

    • Sgorynych on July 5, 2020 at 4:15 pm
    • Reply

    Windows Vista SP2 – successfully updated! Thanks a lot! πŸ™‚

  5. read this https://ssn.is

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.