Today I decided to check the Windows Update status on my laptop, and to my surprise, I was getting an error code 8024402C. Pressing the �Try again� button didn�t help, I was getting the same error over and over again.
And I clicked the �Get help with this error� link, which indicated a lot of possible causes that lead to this error message. This set me on the right track - while my computer is not �usually connected to a network at work�, I did connect once to the work network and I joined the domain there. (It was more than a month ago, before leaving in vacation, and I didn�t even remembered I did that; it was also the last time updates were installed on the laptop).
And so, when I joined the domain, the domain administrators have set my computer to be managed by Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) , as (not verily clearly) indicated by the message �You receive updates: Managed by your system administrator� near the bottom of the page. (I knew that joining the domain would be bad juju sooner or later, but I had to do it so I can access the TFS servers for source control and bug tracking.)
I started searching for policies that were set on my machine and I came upon this Technet page describing how to manage the WSUS automatic updates with Group Policy. Indeed searching in Windows7 for �Group Policy�, launching the policy editor and looking at Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/ Windows Update I found out I had one policy set, for �Specify intranet Microsoft update service location�
Unfortunately, setting it back to �Not configured� and rebooting the computer, didn�t help.
I then found out the WSUS Client Diagnostics Tool, and when I run it it indicated WSUS was still enabled on my machine, and still using the server name I had cleared out in policies. So the settings must have been preserved somewhere else� Searching for WSUS configuration settings location I found out a page describing how to use WSUS without Active Directory, and I learned that Windows Update settings are stored in registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate.
I used RegEdit to change the following registry setting, disabling the use of WSUS server.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU]
"UseWUServer"=dword:00000000
I tried again Windows Update and the error code this time changed from 8024402C into 80070057. This stands for ERROR_INVALID_PARAMETER, but indicated I was on the right track.
I stopped and restarted the Windows Update Service (I run in an elevated command prompt these commands)
net stop wuauserv
net start wuauserv
which saved me another reboot, and next time I tried Windows Update things were started working!
I guess next time I�ll connect the laptop to the work network the WSUS server will be re-configured and I�ll have to clear it up again, so here I�m writing this article to remind myself how to do it�
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