Windows update error 0x8024402F

I run yesterday into a weird error, for which I spent half of day to solve the problem. It�s unlikely you�d run into the same problem, so this is more for me to remember what I did to fix it in case I run into this again�

Yesterday I upgraded my laptop to Windows 8 Pro and installed Office 2013 Consumer Preview (upgrade from Win7 Ultimate/Office 2010). After the upgrade, when I tried to install latest Windows updates, I kept getting error 0x8024402F.

I tried the Help page on the error code, I launched the troubleshooter there (which claimed it could be a problem with the server connection, and claimed to have applied fixes), but all lead to nothing.

Knowing in the past I had trouble with Windows Update I searched my blog, which pointed out to problems related to UseWUServer set when I joined CorpNet. I left corp.microsoft.com domain and joined my home domain, but that only cost me 2 reboots and still didn�t fix anything.

I searched the the net for the error code, I found more KnowledgeBase pages with more FixIt installers which also did not fix the problem.

From http://support.microsoft.com/kb/836941 I found out the error code means WU_E_PT_ECP_SUCCEEDED_WITH_ERRORS. Further searches on the named error pointed to a WindowsUpdate.log file (instructions for reading it are at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/902093).

I looked in the log file and it contained more error details like this:

1060 15a8 PT WARNING: ECP: Failed to validate cab file digest downloaded from http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update/software/svpk/2008/06/1319061_d1590aa04b224974f0cf46ee7937bda90a815268.cab with error 0x80246003

Great, now I was looking for a different error code, 0x80246003. A search on the error number on Internet didn�t find any solution. The only thing I could find is a KB page http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938205 where I learned the error code 0x80246003 is WU_E_DM_UNKNOWNALGORITHM �A download manager operation could not be completed because the file metadata requested an unrecognized hash algorithm.�
Further searches on the named error lead nowhere. I tried re-registering the cryptographic providers dlls, comparing with other machines where things were working, all to no avail.

I run ProcMon searching for failures (when in doubt, run Process Monitor), but again this didn�t help.

I searched the internal Corpnet site for the error code or named error, but that also didn�t lead to a solutions.

Ultimately, I searched the source code. The error code is returned from only one place, from a failed test checking whether test keys are allowed. This had 2 parts:

- checking whether I had a file AUTest.cab in %windir%\SoftwareDistribution folder

- checking whether HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Test\AllowSHA1ContentHash = (dword)1

ProcMon should have shown these as well (at least the first one, to begin with), probably I just missed the line between so many other failures.  Anyway, I set easily the registry value, but I didn�t have the file on any other machine where things were working fine.

After more CorpNet searches I found on http://mswikis/wukipedia/Wiki%20Pages/What%20is%20autest.cab.aspx where to get this test cab file (I needed to obtain a latest version anyway, since the file is signed and expires every 2 weeks).

I copied it to SoftwareDistribution folder, stopped and restarted the Windows Update service (�net stop wuauserv�/�net start wuauserv�), and next time I tried Windows Update the update finally succeeded! After that I deleted the test cab file, and after that the updates still seem to work fine.

I suspect some internal test qfe was installed on my laptop when I joined CorpNet a while ago (giving the old �svpk/2008/06� date of the update, suggesting some Win7 pre-service pack timeframe), and it was causing trouble now.

Anyway, I�m glad the problem seems fixed, but just in case here is this article to remind me the solution in case I run into this ever again.

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