Error 80072ee2 is a windows update error which is caused when the files on your system are corrupt or the updates are stuck. The fix described in this method also applies to error 8024400A and 8024400D.
Before you continue with the fix below, make sure that your internet is working on the PC affected by this error since it will need to connect to the windows update servers to push updates back.
Solutions to Fix Windows Update Error 80072ee2
Solution 1: Editing the Registry
The best working fix for this update error is changing the registry and deleting some keys. It should be mentioned beforehand that not all users might have the registry key in their computer because they are using Windows in a home-based environment (not part of any domain). This primarily signifies that home users will not have the key.
- Hold Windows Key and Press R
- In the run dialog that opens up, type services.msc and Click OK
- In the services console, locate the service called “Windows Update“. Right click this service, and select Stop.
- We need to stop the “Windows Update” service responsible for updating Windows before we make changes to fix the corruption. If you continue with stopping it, this will return error.
- Now Hold Windows Key and Press R again
- In the run dialog, type:
C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution
- and Click OK.
- Delete the contents of this folder.
- Now return to the Services Console. Right Click Windows Update service again and select Start.
- Hold Windows Key and Press R again
- Type regedit in the run dialog.
- In registry editor, browse to the following path:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate
- In the right pane, look for the keys called WUServer and WUStatusServer
- Right click on each of these keys and select Delete.
- Now return to the services console and make sure Windows Update service is still running.
- Once done, you should be able to update without errors.
Solution 2: Running Windows Update Troubleshooter
Windows update troubleshooter checks all the settings and registries of your computer, checks them against the requirement of Windows update and then proposes possible changes to fix the issue. Make sure that you have an administrator account before running the troubleshooter.
- Press Windows + S to launch the start menu’s search bar. Type “troubleshoot” in the dialogue box and click on the first result which comes forth.
- Once in the troubleshoot menu, select “Windows Update” and click the button “Run the troubleshooter”. If you are using Windows 7, you can navigate to the troubleshooter manually using the control panel.
- Now Windows will start the troubleshooting process and see for any discrepancies. You might be prompted that the troubleshooter requires administrator access to check for problems with your system. Click the option “Try troubleshooting as an administrator”.
- After the fixes are implemented, restart your computer and check if the problem got fixed.
Note: This solution requires an active internet connection for optimum results. Also, try to run the troubleshooter a number of times instead of trying only once.
Solution 3: Deleting Software Distribution
SoftwareDistribution is a folder located in windows directory which is used to temporarily store files which may be required to install the latest windows updates on your computer. This is a requirement for the update module and the read/write operation to this is managed by WUagent.
Note: This method will also clear all your update history.
- Press Windows + S, type “command prompt” in the dialogue box, right-click on the application and select “Run as administrator”.
- In the command prompt, type the following commands one by one:
net stop cryptSvc net stop wuauserv net stop msiserver net stop bits
Now we will navigate to Windows Update directory and delete all the updated files already present. Open your file explorer or My Computer and follow the steps.
- Navigate to the address written below. You can also launch the Run application and copy paste the address to reach directly.
C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution
- Delete everything inside the Software Distribution folder (you can also cut paste them to another location in case you want to place them back again).
Note: You can also instead rename the software distribution folder. Name it something like “SoftwareDistributionold”.
Now we have to turn the Windows Update service back on and launch it again. Initially, the Update Manager might take a few minutes to compute details and prepare a manifest for the download.
- Open an elevated command prompt and try executing the following commands to reinitialize all the services which we stopped.
net start cryptSvc net start wuauserv net start msiserver net start bits
- Now restart your computer and try updating Windows again.
Note: You can also try running the following commands in order in the elevated command prompt.
net stop wuauserv rmdir /q /s c:\windows\softwaredistribution\. wuauclt /detectnow
If the problem is related to your network settings, the following command in an elevated command prompt will fix your issue.
netsh int tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled
Solution 4: Checking Official Microsoft documentation
In some cases, if you are running a Windows server, you should check Microsoft official documentation and see if this case applies to you. It seems that some updates were superseded with further updates for the operating system.
This issue is quite common so Windows has officially released documentation which shows how this can be fixed. Go through them and after applying all the fixes, restart your computer completely.
Solution 5: Completely resetting Windows Update modules
If all the above methods don’t work for you, you can try resetting all the Windows update modules forcefully and then try launching them again through a restart. The error message under discussion is very widespread and surfaced after a blunder by Microsoft itself when it changed the validity date at the server side in the main update XML file. Since editing the XML file would void the digital signature at our side, Microsoft changed the XML at their end but the error still persists. Maybe reinitializing all the modules will fix the problem for us.
- Press Windows + S, type “command prompt”, right-click on the application and select “Run as administrator”.
- Once in elevated command prompt, executing the following commands one by one.
net stop wuauserv cd %systemroot% ren SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old net start wuauserv net stop bits net start bits net stop cryptsvc cd %systemroot%\system32 ren catroot2 catroot2.old net start cryptsvc regsvr32 Softpub.dll /s regsvr32 Wintrust.dll /s regsvr32 Initpki.dll /s regsvr32 Mssip32.dll /s
- After executing all the commands, restart your computer completely and check if the problem is solved.
