by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2006/12/25 03:01 -05:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2006/12/25/1360675.aspx
Back in my younger days, I helped tutor a few classmates who were having problems with our school's TRS-80 machines. In one case I joked that maybe the problems she saw were due to the machine not liking her. Her eyes got big and she asked me whether that could be it? :-)
(I reassured her that I was kidding, of course!)
Over the last two weeks, every single machine I own (or that I use but Microsoft owns) -- all seven of them, have had Windows Update problems.
Now I vaguely recalled Scott Hanselman's post about a similar problem (Resetting Microsoft Update - Error 0x8024001D), and in three of the cases, that solution actually worked (the error codes varied a bit between them).
Of course note that the rename to use something other than the word "poo" and still work....
For the other four I just took the whole softwaredistribution directory and renamed it (after running net stop wuauserv) and that resolved the problem.
I can't help wondering if others are hitting problems here, too. The machines all get used in different ways and even updated via different means, so other than the fact that I am the main user of ll of them, I can't think of anything else in common -- they span laptops, desktops, and a tablet; some XP boxes, some Server 2003 boxes, and some Vista boxes.
Is anyone else seeing problems here? Or could it be that my machines just don't like me? :-)
This post brought to you by ? (U+003f, a.k.a. QUESTION MARK)
# Mike Dimmick on 25 Dec 2006 3:57 AM:
There was a workstation at work which (IIRC after installing XP SP2) would no longer receive updates. I think this was before Scott published his guide, but I did more or less the same. It still wouldn't install updates. Nothing in KB was any help. I don't think it was failing WGA.
Since the computer didn't hold any critical data, being used mainly to load software onto handheld computers, I repaved the box - after which, it worked fine.
# Mads Houmann on 25 Dec 2006 5:51 AM:
I recently had the Windows Update service crash after every reboot on my main PC - taking down the svchost.exe process hosting most of the Windows services.
Thought the PC was hosed as it became unresponsive as soon as the crash occurred, but I managed stop the update service, clean out the update directory and re-register the update service DLLs.
Then things were back to normal.
# Ben Cooke on 25 Dec 2006 6:16 PM:
On one of my old systems Windows Update (which was what it was at the time) wouldn't run. It would give an error much like the one in your example, though with more zeroes. The Automatic Updates client failed with the same error message, observed from the Windows Update logs.
I never did find out what was up with that because the machine died and I got another one, which has been working okay.
# BeachGeek on 11 Mar 2007 1:16 PM:
Have 11 XP boxes with this problem (0x8024001D).
Can't find a common thread between them or why another with the same hardware and basically the same software work fine.
Some boxes are full auto update, some completely manual, and 1 or 2 set to only notify.
Have to find a solution besides repaving. Repaving doesn't go over well.
# Michael S. Kaplan on 11 Mar 2007 3:41 PM:
All of my 8024001D problems were solved with the given solution. I am down to one single Vista machine getting an 8024402C that nothing seems to be able to help.
Dries Verdoes on 14 Apr 2008 7:43 AM:
Windows Update error 8024402C For windows vista