essential services such as windows defender firewalla nd windows update are stuck on starting

Question

this morning, nothing on my pc was working for some reason. At first some apps took way too long to start up, then spotify wouldnt open. I tried reinstalling spotify, then got error 0x80080005, so I dug deeper, and found out multiple windows services were just stuck on "starting." i tried going to the update screen in settings, but it just spun forever and told me to try opening settings later. I reall yneed a fix for this as windows defender also being on "starting" as well as windows update and other important services does not seem like a good thing. edit: i tried doing dism restorehealth and it STILL doesnt work, it just gets stuck at 62.3

Answer 1

Hi Rohan,

It sounds like your Windows 11 system is facing some pretty deep service corruption usually this can happen after a failed update, malware, or damage to critical system files.

In your case, it’s definitely worth trying to restart the necessary services first, then run DISM again but this time sourcing directly from a clean Windows ISO. Here’s how I’d suggest going through it step by step:

Step 1: Boot into Safe Mode and check services

• Restart your PC and repeatedly tap F8 (or hold Shift and click Restart → Troubleshoot → Advanced options → Startup Settings → Enable Safe Mode).
• Once in Safe Mode, press Win+R, type services.msc, and press Enter.
• Try manually stopping and restarting any services that are stuck on “Starting.”

Step 2: Reset Windows Update components

Open Command Prompt as Administrator and run these commands one by one:

net stop wuauserv

net stop cryptSvc

net stop bits

net stop msiserver

ren C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old

ren C:\Windows\System32\catroot2 catroot2.old

net start wuauserv

net start cryptSvc

net start bits

net start msiserver

Step 3: Check system files again by running: sfc /scannow

Step 4: Run DISM with an external source

If still fails or hangs, try running it with a fresh Windows ISO: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth /Source:D:\Sources\install.wim /LimitAccess

(Replace D: with the actual drive letter of your mounted ISO.)

If services are still stuck after these steps and DISM can’t complete, it usually points to something deeper in the component store or registry. At that stage, the most effective next move is to do in-place upgrade using the latest official Windows ISO. This keeps your files and apps but refreshes the entire system.

Hope this helps clarify things!