Third-party antivirus programs, "PC cleaners," or registry optimizers can sometimes block or interfere with the update client's operations.
If you’ve ever opened your Task Manager and spotted wuauclt.exe eating your CPU or—worse—seen a popup saying it has stopped working, you’ve likely asked a simple question: Why does a core Windows update process keep crashing? Why Does Wuauclt.exe Crash BEST
This forces Windows to build a fresh update database. In rare cases, group policy objects (GPO) from
In rare cases, group policy objects (GPO) from a domain server force invalid update server URLs. Run gpresult /h report.html and check for WSUS misconfigurations. This gives you the exception code—your best clue
If wuauclt.exe still crashes after all above:
Open Event Viewer ( eventvwr.msc ), navigate to Windows Logs → Application , and look for “Error” events from source “Windows Error Reporting” or “Application Error” with wuauclt.exe in the description. This gives you the exception code—your best clue.