I recently got this error on my Laptop, running Windows 7 (Enterprise SP1), when I tried to apply new Windows Updates.
I took the following steps to resolve the issue.
1: Turn off / Disable any Anti-Virus and Firewall software. I had “Symantec EndPoint Protection”.
2: Reboot machine into Safe Mode using F8 on restart.
3: Select “Run” from the Start menu and type %windir%
(Tip: You can also access the Run command by pressing the Windows logo key +R)
4: Find and Rename Folder SoftwareDistribution to say, SoftwareDistribution_old
5: Reboot machine into normal windows mode
6: Run Windows update.
7: Re-enable Anti-virus and Firewall software.
This seemed to fix the problem for me. Hope it helps