Windows Updates Fails with Error 0x8024d007

I was trying to run Windows Update on one of my Windows 2003 Server and encountered the 0x8024d007 error. There are numerous posts available online with this error message and multiple solutions provided to solve the issue as well. The description of the issue is as below.

When you run Windows Update from the start menu, you would get a message suggesting you to download and install the latest version of the Windows Updating software. When you click on the “Update Windows” button on this web page it would start to download and install the software and the counter will run till 100 % and fail with [Error number: 0x8024D007].

The C:\Windows\WindowsUpdate.log file would register the following error messages.

WU client version 7.4.7600.226

WARNING: Exit code = 0x8024D007

FATAL: InstallUpdatedBinaries failed with error 0x8024d007

FATAL: UpdateClientWorker failed: error 0x8024d007

I will list down the steps which I have followed based on inputs from various posts online. Depending on your case either one or a combination of multiple steps might help solve your problem.

Solution 1: Manually install the Windows Update Agent from the Microsoft Site. Once you have download the executable please run it with the /wuforce switch to force it to install over an existing version of the Update Agent. (windowsupdateagent30-x86.exe /wuforce).

Solution 2: Re-register the following DLL files. You could put all the lines below into a batch file and run it in one go.

REGSVR32 WUPS2.DLL /S

REGSVR32 WUPS.DLL /S

REGSVR32 WUAUENG.DLL /S

REGSVR32 WUAPI.DLL /S

REGSVR32 MUCLTUI.DLL /S

REGSVR32 WUCLTUI.DLL /S

REGSVR32 WUWEB.DLL /S

REGSVR32 MUWEB.DLL /S

REGSVR32 QMGR.DLL /S

REGSVR32 QMGRPRXY.DLL /S

Solution 3: Renaming the SoftwareDistribution folder under %windir% folder. Please note that this can only be done when the Automatic Update Service is not running. You could run the commands below or do it thru the Services.msc console and the Windows explorer interface.

Net stop wuauserv

Ren C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old

Net start wuauserv

Solution 4: Giving permission on certain registry keys.

Give Full Control to System and Administrators Group to wuauserv under this key.

KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\wuauserv

Give Full Control to System and Administrators Group to Svchost under this key.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Svchost

Solution 5:

None of the steps mentioned above solved the issue in my case and finally I decided to apply the setup security template to the server to reset all the rights and permissions. I am glad I did. As soon as the settings were applied the windows update went and fetched a list of updates which were to be installed on the server.

Applying the Setup Security can again be done thru the MMC console or the CLI. The steps are available here for your reference.

You can also do the above using the secedit command line utility. Syntax and expamples are available here.

Once the baseline security is applied, the windows update happily started downloading the windows update from the MS site.