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If you’re one of the millions of people worldwide who are into multiplayer games, chances are you own a Discord account. Discord is one of the best ways for gamers to interact, coordinate gameplay and share their gaming milestones. Some users have, however, complained about being unable to update Discord on their Windows 10 PC. If you’re in the same situation, we will show you how to update the app without issues.

How to update Discord on Windows 10?

In case you’re wondering how to update Discord properly on Windows 10, you have come to the right place. As one of the most feature-rich chat apps around, Discord uses a lot of resources and needs a wide variety of app permissions. This often causes it to be in conflict with other processes on your computer, making it susceptible to problems during updates. This could be related to your system’s safety programs, the Discord files on your computer or a combination of both.

If you keep getting installation failed or update failed notifications when trying to update Discord on your Windows 10 PC, try one of the following methods to resolve the issue.

Method 1: Disable Windows Defender

Windows Defender—the built-in anti-virus on Windows 10—uses certain aggressive classifiers that sometimes misclassify perfectly fine files as hazardous ones. So, if you’re having problems with installing Discord, it might be because Windows Defender is preventing it from being installed on your PC.

Turning Windows Frewall off for a little while will allow you to install Discord without interference.

  1. In Cortana Search, type and run Settings.
  2. Go to Update & Security > Windows Security > Virus & threat protection > Manage settings.
  3. Toggle the Turn on real-time protection option to off.
  4. Save changes and exit the app.

If an update of the Discord client succeeds after this step, you can return to Windows Security to re-enable real-time protection.

Alternatively, you can follow these steps to unblock all incoming connections in Windows Defender Firewall:

  1. Type Firewall and Network Protection in Cortana Search and run the program.
  2. Open your active network connection.
  3. Uncheck Block all incoming connections under Windows Defender Firewall.
  4. Disable the firewall.

Method 2: Disable your antivirus

If the above methods don’t succeed, your third-party antivirus might be the culprit. Certain antivirus programs are known to be overzealous in their pursuit of malicious items on your PC. Sometimes they will quarantine perfectly fine installation files, thereby disrupting the process.

To make sure your antivirus isn’t blocking your Discord update, open the software and disable protection for the duration of the update installation. Alternatively, you can open Task Manager and kill all the running processes associated with your antivirus.

To be on the safe side, we recommend using an antivirus that combines round-the-clock security with an unerring ability to distinguish between hazardous items and trusted files. Auslogics Anti-Malware offers the complete package of prime protection, flexible scan scheduling, clean interface and a malware-detection algorithm that is 100 percent accurate. Go ahead and try it out.

Method 3: Update as Administrator

It is possible that Discord is unable to be updated because it needs administrator-level privileges to run. To fix this, you have to install the update as an administrator.

Before you do this, ensure there is no Discord process running on your PC. Open Task Manager and verify that no running process is Discord-related. If there are any, kill them.

  1. Navigate to the location of the downloaded Discord update.
  2. Right-click the file and choose Run as Administrator to begin the update process. Ignore the warning message if one appears.

Method 4: Install to a Different Folder

Some users have reported a successful Discord update when installing to a different folder. It won’t hurt to try the same to see if it solves the issue.

  1. Find the Discord folder on your PC and move it to another location.
  2. Begin the update process and choose the new folder location when prompted to choose an install location by the install wizard.

Method 5: Rename Update File:

  1. Open File Explorer and type %LocalAppData% in the path field. This should bring up the Local subfolder inside the hidden AppData folder.
  2. You should find the Update.exe file in the Discord folder.
  3. Rename it to something else and try to install.

Method 6: Reinstall Discord

Another method to get the updated version of Discord on your Windows 10 PC is to do a fresh install of the application.

  1. Delete Discord and all its associated files and folders from your PC. Don’t forget to back up the data you need.
  2. Visit the Discord website to download the latest version and install it on your PC. Don’t forget to disable any protection software that is running interference.

You could also try installing the latest version (which includes the update) on the version of Discord already present on your PC.

These, in a nutshell, are the common methods of getting round a failed Discord update in Windows 10. So try them out to gain access to the latest additions to Discord’s feature-rich gaming ecosystem. As mentioned earlier, a lot depends on whether there is any program, such as Windows Defender or your primary antivirus, that is actively blocking the installation of Discord. For those who can’t do without protection software, the aforementioned Auslogics Anti-Malware is a perfect non-intrusive option.