Servicing (CBS)
0x80070bc9
The requested operation failed. A restart is required to roll back changes.
Needs attention
What it means
Microsoft documents two causes for this code. One is Windows Installer service start behaviour being controlled by policy. The other is more interesting in a managed fleet: the TrustedInstaller service start type was forced back to Manual by Group Policy, so a transaction that needed to run after a restart never ran, and it now blocks every other update.
Real causes
- A GPO sets the TrustedInstaller service start type to Manual. TrustedInstaller sets itself to Automatic when it has a post-restart transaction, and the policy reverts it before the restart happens.
- A policy controls the start behaviour of the Windows Installer service, which should be left to the operating system at its default of Manual.
What to do
- Change the TrustedInstaller policy to Automatic and restart the computer.
- Check for policy on the Windows Installer service too. Its default start type is Manual and it should be managed by the OS.
- If that does not clear it, boot to WinRE and revert the pending actions:
dism /Image:C:\ /Cleanup-Image /RevertPendingActions - As a last step, from WinRE, rename \WinSxS\Pending.xml and remove PendingXMLIdentifier from the COMPONENTS hive.
- This one is worth checking fleet-wide. If a GPO causes it, you have it on more than one device.
Where to look
%windir%\Logs\CBS\CBS.log
Checked against Microsoft documentation. Last reviewed 2026-08-20.
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