Windows update error

Question

Hi All,

I am facing the windows update error on 2016 servers after updating the group policy settings of below

Configure Automatic Updates
Select when Quality Updates are received
Select when Preview Builds and Feature Updates are received.

Below are some of the workaround I have tried:

Changed the above group policy settings to not configured state and tried running below commands

net stop wuauserv
net stop cryptSvc
net stop bits
net stop msiserver
ren C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old
ren C:\Windows\System32\catroot2 Catroot2.old
net start wuauserv
net start cryptSvc
net start bits
net start msiserver

but did not worked out. Please guide me to proceed further.

Thanks

Answer 1

Try run command prompt as administrator and then type the following commands:

sfc /scannow
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Answer 2

Hello Fahrid,

Which changes have you done into that policies? Are you using implementing WSUS (or maybe removing it from the management of this machines?)

Also it would help if you could post an extract of the Windowsupdate.log in an affected machine with the previous 30 or 50 lines previous to the last line with the 0x8024500c error.

One initial option, if you are implementing WSUS, disable Dual Scan options:
Enable:
[Do not allow update deferral policies to cause scans against Windows Update]
(Location: Group Policy Management Editor\Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update)

ensure that these are set to "Not defined" (they were the 'old way' to disable Dual Scan, and maybe you have them set before, but they are unstable with current versions)
[Do not connect to any Windows Update Internet Locations]
(Location: Group Policy Management Editor\Policies\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update)

[Turn off access to all Windows Update features]
(Location: Group Policy Management Editor\Policies\Administrative Templates\System\Internet Communication Management\Internet Communication settings)

If you want to have a better understanding of what Dual Scan is or what it does, you can give a read to:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/archive/blogs/wsus/demystifying-dual-scan

Hope it helps in your case!
Best regards.

Answer 3

Please check policies:

0x8024500c = WU E Director Connect Policy

Connections to the redirector server are disallowed by managed policy.

This is a Microsoft Technet link that may be useful:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/8312b0bd-7a1d-4f14-96ec-0778be5f3940/no-communication-with-wsus?forum=winserverwsus

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Answer 4

Hi All

Marked the setting Select when Quality Updates are received to not configured state, after that update is getting downloaded but not getting installed it says failed to install. Now facing below issues

Answer 5

Any further suggestions on this?