14 DAY TRIAL // Adobe rolled out an out-of-band update for Flash Player yesterday, so Microsoft delivered its very own patch a few hours after that in order to keep Windows systems running Internet Explorer protected (Flash Player is now built into Internet Explorer, so Microsoft is the one patching systems, not Adobe).
But it turns out that the update that Microsoft’s shipping to computers actually fails to install with error 0x80004005 and the very same behavior is experienced after a reboot or several.
For the moment, it appears that this is more or less related to some corrupt files that are located on the target computer, but it’s not yet clear if these items are indeed corrupt or Windows Update incorrectly detects them as being so.
Posts on several forums online indicate that there is indeed a problem with KB3087040, but Microsoft is yet to provide a workaround or reissue the patch.
How to fix the installation error
Right now, the only way to get rid of this update error is to install the Flash patch manually. This way, you not only keep your computer protected but at the same time also avoid being bothered again by the update notification in Windows Update.
So, you can download KB3087040 x86 or x64 here or in case you’re not using Internet Explorer at all, you could hide the update until Microsoft comes up with a fix.
We’ve reached out to the company to ask for more information on this and will update the article once we get an answer.
Most likely, Adobe’s new patch doesn’t include more than bug fixes and performance improvements, as security releases are usually documented, so the risk of getting hacked isn’t so high this time, even if you’re using Internet Explorer. Just make sure you stay away from suspicious websites, though.