Windows Update is great and has vastly improved upon its predecessor (Microsoft Update) over the years.
When it breaks however, it can be REALLY painful to get it back on track.
Windows Media Creation Tool to the rescue, right?
While it doesn’t seem logical, it turns out that the tool can also facilitate an in-place upgrade that runs entirely from the installer it downloads.
This will still download the latest Windows Installer ESD file, so the bandwidth usage is fairly high.
I also find that once updated, things have been ‘jiggled’ about and Windows Update starts working properly again.