WSUS – Windows 10 Clients – Error 0x8024500c

Error

Just finished troubleshooting an error with Windows 10 clients (build 1607 and above) contacting WSUS server getting 0x8024500c like below while searching updates.

The client had an on-premise WSUS server which they wanted to push out Windows Updates, instead of using the internet (windowsupdate.microsoft.com).

Cause/Solution

They had configured the following group policy to enable:

  • Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update
    • Do not connect to any Windows Update Internet location

This caused the Windows Update on the clients to break, instead they should disabled the above and configured the following instead:

  • Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Internet Communication Management\Internet Communication settings
    • Turn off access to all Windows Update features

The above will allow users to download apps on the Windows Store, but still only allowing the users to use the on-premise WSUS server.

Unfortunately Microsoft introduced a new feature called “Dual Scan” (read more about it here) which allows the Windows clients to access both WSUS and the internet, which would potentially bypass the local WSUS.

To disable the dual scan, the client needs to have the following registry keys deleted.

  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\device\Update
    • BranchReadinessLevel
    • DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays
    • DeferQualityUpdatesPeriodInDays
    • DeferUpdatePeriod
    • DeferUpgradePeriod
    • ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate
    • PauseDeferrals
    • PauseFeatureUpdates
    • PauseQualityUpdates
  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings
    • BranchReadinessLevel
    • DeferFeatureUpdatesPeriodInDays
    • DeferQualityUpdatesPeriodInDays
    • ExcludeWUDriversInQualityUpdate
    • DeferUpgrade

If though you set the matching group policies to “Not Configured” or “Disable”, it will not delete the keys but only set them to zero (DWORD) in the registry.

For those clients that are running build 1607, you need to install kb4025334 which will add a local policy “Do not allow update deferral policies to cause scan against Windows Update” under “Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update“.

You can set this group policy on those 1607 clients by adding the following registry through group policy.

  • HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate
    • Key: DisableDualScan
    • Value: 0x1
    • Type: DWORD

The WSUS server was also tuned a little, because all resources was used. This caused the clients to take a long time to talk and eventually timeout.

  • All superseded updates was declined in the WSUS management console.
  • The WSUS IIS application pool (“WsusPool“) was also tunned with the following settings (remember IISRESET afterwards):
    • .NET Framework Version: v4.0
      • Already on Windows Server 2012 above, but this server was Windows Server 2008 R2
    • Queue Length: 2000
    • Private Memory Limit: 7843200

You can test the Windows Update by executing the following command in a elevated command prompt.

  • usoclient.exe StartScan

Troubleshooting

Registry Keys

If you want to see what registry keys you have on your client, you can run the following in a command prompt with elevated rights.

  • reg query HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate /s
  • reg query HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\device\Update
  • reg query HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings

Windows Update Log

Check the Windows Update log by running the following command in PowerShell.

  • Get-WindowsUpdateLog

CBS Log

Check the Component-Based Servicing log here.

  • C:\Windows\Logs\CBS

That is my 2 cents, hope you can use it!

 

 

 

 

Experienced advanced operations engineer with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. Skilled in Windows Server, Azure, Ethical Hacking, Office 365, Exchange, Jenkins, SCCM, Octopus Deploy and PowerShell to name a few. Strong engineering professional with a big passion for knowledge.

15 Comments

  1. Fozzie

    Worked a treat – thanks so much – been searching for a resolution on this for months!

  2. PF

    Thanks! This finally fixed our problem, after two days of intensive googling and failing.

  3. Pingback: WSUS – Windows 10 Clients – Error 0x8024500c | Alex Ø. T. Hansen – Log@X.X.B

  4. S. Hausmann

    This is indeed a great summary!

    Another cause of this error could be, that…
    – if you need to let “Do not connect to any Windows Update Internet location” enabled and
    – you configured https for WSUS
    … you need to specify an alternate Download server in “Specify intranet Microsoft update service location”. Simply Choose http://:8530

  5. iMekkano

    This worked flawessly! Although I have the policy

    – Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\Windows Components\Windows Update
    — Do not connect to any Windows Update Internet location

    set to disabled, this it solved the Error 0x8024500c on all my Windows 10 clients from 1511 to 1709 to get the upgrade to 1803 via WSUS anyways.

    I want to point out that only I just deleted all mentioned keys under:
    •HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsUpdate\UX\Settings

    because
    •HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\device\Update

    was already missing in my windows 10 computer so there was nothing to delete.

    Thanks a lot.

  6. Michael

    Thank you very very much for this post!

    This made my Win10-machines fetching their updates again.
    For me deleting the registry-entries (only 3 or 4 of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\PolicyManager\current\device\Update were actually set) and changing two GPOs as mentioned did the trick.

  7. Chavdar

    I’m not sure what to do with
    Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System\Internet Communication Management\Internet Communication settings
    Turn off access to all Windows Update features

    Should this be set to Enabled?!
    By explanation this will completely stop receiving any updates?!

  8. alex

    thank you very much.
    i set this to solve my problem.

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate
    Key: DisableDualScan
    Value: 0x1
    Type: DWORD

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