Windows could not search for new updates

Errors found: Code 80244008

On Windows 10, the error message is slightly different.

There were some problems installing updates, but we’ll try again later…(0x8024401f)

What’s the cause?

I believe it’s this Windows update (KB4025336 – 2017-07 Security Monthly Quality Rollup for Windows Server 2012 R2 for x64-based Systems) that caused the issue. Basically, if your WSUS service is running on the default port 8530 you will likely have this issue on your network.

Solutions

Obviously, removing the troublesome KB4025336 should be able to rollback the WSUS server to the last working state.

But if that’s not the option, you can also run the following commands to reset WSUS’ IIS port.

wsusutil.exe usecustomwebsite true
wsusutil.exe usecustomwebsite false
iisreset /restart

Note that the command line wsusutil.exe is located in the following folder:

C:\Program Files\Update Services\Tools

Once IIS server restarted, try Windows Update again on a workstation. If it fails again with a different error message like below,

Windows could not search for new updates

Errors found: Code 80072EE2

Check the Group Policy setting and specify the port number in the following group setting.

Specify intranet Microsoft update service location

Now everything should be back to normal now.

The reason why the error occurs is that the Application Pool that runs the WSUS service stopped.

Go to the WSUS server and open IIS Manager. Click Application Pools, select WsusPool, and click Start to restart the Application Pool.

Now, let’s try again on the workstation and see if the updates can go through.

The consequence of having this WsusPool application pool stopped is that you can’t access the WSUS dashboard on the WSUS server either, a Connection Error awaits you there instead.

If this happens often, it will delay your workstation/server update process. Better to address it now rather than later. As this post points out, to prevent WsusPool from being stopped, you will need to disable the Rapid-Fail Protection and increase the Private Memory Limit.

Where do I find these two settings?

Highlight the WsusPool in the IIS Application Pools window, and click the Advanced Settings… on the right side Actions pane.

Scroll down a bit towards the bottom of the list, change the Enabled setting for the Rapid-Fail Protection to False, and increase the Private Memory Limit to 3GB under the Recycling section.

Click OK to save the settings and restart the WsusPool.