While verifying Windows patches were up to date on a few Windows 7 clients, WSUS showed one PC needed some updates with approval: "install" but status: "not installed." Running Windows Update check on the PC was not showing any updates available from the WSUS. The WindowsUpdate.log file was showing differently that there were updates detected matching the number that WSUS showed with approval: "install", but Windows Update would never install them.[more]

Recreating the Software Distribution folder on the client seemed to have resolved this synchronization problem.

  1. Stop Windows Update service
  2. Rename C:\windows\softwaredistribution folder  
  3. Start Windows Update service and check again for updates.  It will recreate the softwaredistribution folder automatically.

Windows Update now showed the missing updates to install from WSUS server.