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Windows Update Could Not Search for New Updates (C8000266)

I've just installed Windows Server DataCenter 2008 R2 64 bit on a Virtual machine. After the install completed, I attempted to run the first step of a windows update - searching for new updates. After about 2 minutes of trying to search, the search failed. The message was "Windows could not search for new updates. An error occurred while checking for new updates for your computer". The error code accompanying the error was C8000266.

I turned off the windows firewall on both the host and the guest and tried again. Same result unfortunately.

I've done a bunch of searching for solutions but haven't found anything that fits very will.

Following is some information about the host and guest:

Host machine (my laptop) is running Windows 7 Professional - 64 bit
I'm running VMware Workstation 11 on the host
I just installed the new VM described above.
The VM does have connectivity to the internet. I'm able to browse to all websites that I've tried
The guest and host can "speak" with each other ... meaning I can copy files from the host to the guest and vice versa.

Any suggestions?

John

Shut down the guests, restart the Host machine, start up the guests and leave run overnight tonight. Updates occur at 3:00am by default. Try that first and then post back.

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)

I've noticed today (as I type) that Microsoft Windows Update servers are under EXTREME PRESSURE, do to 94 Countries all updating Windows OS, due to the Ransomeware attack spreading around....It's been like this for the past 8 hours....

I would re-try later...

(also Windows 10 Creator edition was released today and Windows 10 is being updated, so a busy day for Update Servers)

cbridgman

ASKER

Okay, thanks. I will do the restarts and then lay low for awhile to see how far I get.

cbridgman

ASKER

I'm not sure that the problem is related to heavy activity on the update servers. I just ran the updates on my host machine (windows 7) and it is running without a problem. Maybe that's because the updates had already been downloaded to the host at some point in the recent past and all the windows update process had to do was install them. The guest (win server 2008), on the other hand, has to download the updates first as it was just created this morning and no updates had been downloaded to it yet.

Does that make sense or is it possible that something else is wrong?

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John

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Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)

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cbridgman

ASKER

Okay, I will try to be patient :-)

Thanks

Andrew Hancock (VMware vExpert PRO / EE Fellow/British Beekeeper)

Are you desperately trying to patch against Ransomware ?

cbridgman

ASKER

No, I just needed a new VM with 2008 R2 on it. Once I had the new VM running, I attempted to install SQL Server 2012 R2 on the VM but the SQL Server installer reported that it needed .net 3.5 to continue. So, I figured that I probably needed to run windows update to have all of the components that SQL Server required.

cbridgman

ASKER

It appears that patience is, in fact, a virtue. The updates all ran late last night.

Thanks for your assistance

John

That sounds about right. Thanks for the update and I was happy to help.