This post gives an overview of problem solutions for Windows Update errors or if Windows Update is not working.

Considering the number of updates that are pushed out through Windows Update every year, this service is quite reliable. Nevertheless, sometimes Windows Update does not work properly. Due to the complexity of a modern operating system, many possible causes for Windows Update errors exist. In this article, I list the most common troubleshooting tips related to Windows Update errors. Since the Windows Update Agent is the client for the Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), these tips can also be used if you are working with WSUS to deploy updates in your network.

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WSUS Offline Update is a free portable tool that allows you to download updates for Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7, and all Office versions and install those updates on computers with no Internet connection.

When Steve Ballmer raves “we are all in,” he probably means that most of the things we do with computers nowadays are in one way or another connected to the cloud, and that means most computer programs assume that your computers have Internet access.

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The free Microsoft tool WSUS ClientManager allows you to add Windows workgroup computers to a WSUS server. To add multiple computers to WSUS, you can use the REG file that WSUS ClientManager creates.

If you want to update Windows computers with Microsoft’s patch management solution, WSUS, you have to add them to your WSUS infrastructure. In an Active Directory network, this can be done through Group Policy (Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update). To add workgroup computers to WSUS, you have to set the corresponding Registry settings manually. Microsoft’s free WSUS ClientManager for Workgroups helps you with this task.

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This article explains how to turn automatic reboots triggered by Windows Update.

If Windows ever rebooted your PC during your lunch break while an important task was still running or you forgot to save data in an open application, then you understand the full extent of this problem. Modern applications are able to prevent Windows from rebooting, but this doesn’t always work.

In my view, a computer should never ever automatically restart without explicit confirmation from the user. If security measures can destroy the work of users, then the bad guys have already won. No Windows update is important enough to delete a whole morning’s work of your boss.

And if a new dangerous computer worm is really threatening your PCs, then network-wide restarts have to be managed and controlled by humans, not computers.

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A while back I reviewed WuInstall Pro, a patch management tool that allows you to push Windows updates to client computers. The publisher of the command line tool hs2n has added an important new feature, which I will discuss in this post.

One of the disadvantages of WSUS is that clients can only pull updates. With WuInstall , you can push urgent updates to clients at your convenience. This lets you control exactly when Windows clients and servers receive specific updates.

Actually, WuInstall also pulls the updates from a WSUS server or Windows Update. However, since the updates are installed whenever you run the command on a client, you can write a script that centrally forces machines to download and install updates immediately. Thus, essentially, you can push Windows updates to clients with WuInstall.

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Submitted by Doug Z

Remote Reboot X is very useful for sys admins to install updates on MANY remote computers simultaneously and then reboot them all with real-time monitoring.

The tool works in conjunction with WSUS, so if you have a WSUS server (or use Microsoft’s update server) but need precise control over when your computers install the updates and reboot, you can use my tool to handle the process.  So, for example, I have about 150 servers that need to be updated and rebooted once per month, but I only have a 1-hour maintenance window.  I’m able to load the list of 150 servers into my tool and initiate the updates installation and reboot on all machines simultaneously while monitoring the status in real-time.

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Windows Update is certainly one of the most important components of Windows. Do you remember how time-consuming patch management was before this feature was added to Windows? The only thing is that some genius in Redmond managed to somehow implement Murphy’s Law into the Windows Update client. I don’t know how they did it, but it is amazing how accurately the Update client determines the worst time for installing updates or requesting reboots. WuInstall 1.2 Pro is a command line tool that enables you to overrule Murphy’s Law when it comes to Windows updates. You can use the tool together with Microsoft’s update service, or with WSUS.

Its publisher, hs2n, is now raffling off five licenses for WuInstall 1.2 Pro, each worth US $250. It authorizes to use the tool for 50 clients and 5 servers. Non-commercial institutions may run WuInstall 1.2 Pro on an unlimited number of machines. Please note that a former version of WuInstall can be found on the 4sysops list of free Windows administration tools. The new version, however, includes quite a few important new features.

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Submitted by hs2n

WuInstall is a command line tool for Windows, which enables you to install Windows-updates for a certain workstation in a controlled way by using a command line script instead of the standard Windows update functionality.

It can be used by administrators for updates on many workstations using scripts or for users who do not want to us the automatic Windows upates.

WuInstall uses the windows update API and is written in C++. It searches either on the Microsoft – Update – Server or at the internal WSUS-Sever (depending on system configuration) for currently available updates for the current workstation and can also download and/or installs these updates. It is roughly comparable with a simplified apt-get command like in Linux.

WuInstall

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Submitted by Jan Ivar Beddari

Secunia has some tools similar to Belarc Advisor which you might want to take a look at.

There’s a personal edition of Secunia Personal Software Inspector (PSI) which is free and a business edition with network scanning features. The company is quite well known around EU for their website and security bulletins so I thought I should mention them ..

This util is quite new. I like it better than Belarc

From the publisher’s site

The Secunia PSI is the FREE security tool that is designed with the sole purpose of helping you secure your computer from software vulnerabilities. Software vulnerabilities affect all applications installed on your computer, from the Operating System down to your email client, office application, instant messaging, and so on.

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Submitted by David Pope

The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware, missing Microsoft hotfixes, anti-virus status, CIS (Center for Internet Security) benchmarks, and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private no your PC and is not sent to any web server.

• Operating Systems: Runs on Windows Vista, 2003, XP, 2000, NT 4, Me, 98, and 95.
• Browsers: Requires IE 3 or Netscape 3, and higher versions. Also runs on Opera, Mozilla, and Firefox.
• File size: 1642 KB.
• License: The license associated with this product allows for free personal use only. Use on multiple PCs in a corporate, educational, military or government installation is prohibited. See the license agreement for details.

Belarc Advisor

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According to a ZDNet article, the average downtime of Windows Server 2003 was increased by 25% in 2007 whereas the downtime of major Linux distros such as Red Hat and Novell decreased by about 75%. The downtime of Windows Server 2003 is nine hours per server, RHEL average downtime is only 1.75 hours.

These are certainly interesting numbers. The article also explains why the downtime of Windows Server 2003 went up. It seems as if there were more Windows updates in 2007 requiring reboots. Hence, one cannot conclude that Windows Server 2003 systems are crashing more often than Linux systems.

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I blogged about this stealth update issue two weeks ago. Now, Scott Dunn reports on Windows Secrets that it conflicts with the XP’s repair option. This feature allows you to recover an XP installation that became unbootable. It seems that the new Windows Update agent is not able to install the 80 latest patches if the system was recovered with the XP repair option.

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It is the number one topic for the last two days in the tech blogosphere. Microsoft changed some files on Windows XP and Vista machines via Windows Update without asking for permission. Nate Clinton, product manager Windows Update, meanwhile tried to clarify this incident in the Microsoft Update Product Team Blog. In my view, his explanation is not plausible.

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Whenever I have to deal with Microsoft’s update services, I get confused about the different terms. When I configured the security health validator (SHV) policy of NAP (Network Access Protection) in Windows Server 2008, I was puzzled again by the difference of the phrases “Automatic Updates”, “Windows Update” and “Microsoft Update”.

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I didn’t know that one can upgrade Firefox to Internet Explorer. At least this is what Microsoft recommends when you access the new Microsoft Update Catalog with Firefox. This catalog allows you to perform a full-text search in Microsoft Update database and download the patches. You can import these updates in WSUS or System Center Configuration Manager 2007. This is all quite useful.

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