While there is no official word of the cause of this issue, many of the wisest Windows 10 users who have been affected by this issue speculate that it is caused by both Windows Update and Windows Defender trying to download and install the Definition Update in question at the same time. Though this issue is prevalent among Windows 10 users, it has also been reported on earlier operating systems as far back as Windows Vista. Also, other users have reported not only Windows Defender updates failing, but many other pending updates for Microsoft Office, Windows Live Essentials, Skype, Microsoft Silverlight, etc. Definition Updates for Windows Defender come with new and updated definitions for all known viruses and malware, which is why these updates are absolutely critical for optimum Windows Defender performance and why not being able to install even one of these updates can be a pretty big problem. When installing updates for their computers from Windows Update, many users have reported a single update – a Definition Update for Windows Defender – failing, with the error code 0x80070643 being associated with the issue.