System TipThis article applies to a different operating system than the one you are using. Article content that may not be relevant to you is disabled.
Important This article contains information that shows you how to help lower security settings or how to turn off security features on a computer. You can make these changes to work around a specific problem. Before you make these changes, we recommend that you evaluate the risks that are associated with implementing this workaround in your particular environment. If you implement this workaround, take any appropriate additional steps to help protect the computer.
When you use the Windows Update website or the Microsoft Update website to check for and install updates, you may receive one of the errors that are listed in the "Symptoms" section.
Important In most cases, these errors are caused by temporary issues caused by very slight interruptions in communications between the computer to be updated and the update to be downloaded. These issues are generally self-healing. So, before you try the troubleshooting methods in this article, try exiting the Windows Update site, waiting 10 to 15 minutes and start Windows Update again, and check for updates. You can also let Windows Automatic Update install the updates on its usual 24-hour cycle.
Note These errors can occur even if no changes have been made to network settings.
When you use the Windows Update website or the Microsoft Update website to check for and install updates, you may receive one of the following error messages:
Error 0x80070008
Error 0x800705B4
Error 0x8007000E
Error 0x80072EE2
Error 0x80072EFD
Error 0x80072EE7
Error 0x80072EEF
Error 0x80072EFE
Error 0x8024400E
Error 0x80072F76
Error 0x80244016
Error 0x80072F78
Error 0x80244022
Error 0x80090305
Error 0x8024402F
Error 0x8009033F
Error 0xC80003FA
Error 0x80244008
Error 0xC800042D
Error 0x8024400A
Error 0x80071A90
Error 0x8024400D
For advanced information about the individual error codes, see the "Additional error code information for advanced users" section.
If you tried exiting Windows Update, waiting 10 to 15 minutes, and then starting Windows Update again, or if you allowed Windows Automatic Updates to install updates during its 24-hour time cycle, and the error message still persists, please use the following methods, starting with Method A, to resolve the issue.
Make sure that you can successfully access other websites. If you cannot successfully access other websites, your Internet connection may not be working correctly, and you might want to contact your Internet service provider for help.
If you can successfully access other websites, continue with Method B.
Warning This workaround may make a computer or a network more vulnerable to attack by malicious users or by malicious software such as viruses. We do not recommend this workaround but are providing this information so that you can implement this workaround at your own discretion. Use this workaround at your own risk.
To complete this method, follow these steps.
Step 1: Make sure that Windows Firewall is turned on
To do this in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2, follow these steps:
To open Windows Firewall, click Start
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, click Control Panel, click System and Security, and then click Window Firewall.
Click Turn Windows Firewall on or off in the navigation pane on the left.
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If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or provide confirmation.
Make sure that the Turn on Windows Firewall option is selected for both the Home or work (private) network location settings and the Public network locations settings, and then click OK.
Video: How to enable Windows Firewall in Windows 7
To do this in Windows Vista and in Windows Server 2008, follow these steps:
To open Windows Firewall, click Start
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, click Control Panel, click Security, and then click Window Firewall.
Click Turn Windows Firewall on or off.
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If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or provide confirmation.
Click On (recommended), and then click OK.
To do this in Windows 2000, in Windows XP, or in Windows Server 2003, follow these steps:
Click Start, and then click Run.
Copy and then paste (or type) the following command in the Run box, and then press ENTER:
firewall.cpl
On the General tab, make sure that On (Recommended), is selected, and then click OK.
Step 2: Temporarily disable third-party firewalls
To do this in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2, use one of the following options:
See the documentation that was included with the program.
View the Help files for the program.
Contact the program vendor. For information about how to contact the program vendor, visit the following Microsoft website:
To do this in Windows Vista and in Windows Server 2008, follow these steps:
Click Start
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, and then click Control Panel.
Click Security, and then click Security Center.
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If you are prompted for an administrator password or for confirmation, type the password, or provide confirmation.
Note Please select Control Panel Home in the navigation pane on the left side if this option is not already selected.
Under Firewall, read the firewall status note. This information will indicate which, if any, firewall is installed and whether the firewall is turned on. For example, for ZoneAlarm, the notice will say ZoneAlarm Firewall is currently ON. There will also be a green On button in the corner on the right side of the firewall section that indicates that the firewall is currently running.
Open the third-party firewall application that is listed in the firewall status note, and temporarily disable the firewall. If necessary, refer to the firewall application documentation, or contact the application vendor for more information about how to temporarily disable the application.
To do this in Windows 2000, in Windows XP or in Windows Server 2003, select one of the following options:
See the documentation
that was included with the program.
View the Help files for your program.
Contact the program vendor.
For information about how to contact the program vendor, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
If this method resolved your issue, follow the steps in Method B, step 2 to re-enable your third-party firewall. You might want to also check for and install any necessary updates to your third-party firewall.
If this method did not resolve your issue, continue with Method C.
Warning This workaround may make a computer or a network more vulnerable to attack by malicious users or by malicious software such as viruses. We do not recommend this workaround but are providing this information so that you can implement this workaround at your own discretion. Use this workaround at your own risk.
Note If your third-party firewall is still disabled from Method B, do not open e-mail messages, surf the Web, or use instant messenger at this point.
Step 1: Locate and temporarily disable your third-party antivirus software
Note Windows does not detect all antivirus software, and some antivirus software doesn't report its status to Windows. If your antivirus software is not displayed in Windows Security Center, and you're not sure how to find it, try any of the following:
Look for the antivirus software in the list of programs on the Start menu.
Type the name of the software or the publisher in the Search box on the Start menu.
Look for the icon in the notification area at the far right of the taskbar.
To do this in Windows Vista and in Windows Server 2008, follow these steps:
Click Start
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, and then copy and paste (or type) the following command in the Start Search text box:
wscui.cpl
In the programs list, click wscui.cpl.
In the Windows Security window, click Malware protection.
Note If Windows can detect your antivirus software, it will be listed under Virus protection.
If the software is turned on, check the Help documentation that was included with the software for information about how to disable it.
To do this in Windows 2000, in Windows XP or in Windows Server 2003, follow these steps:
Click Start, and then click Run.
Copy and then paste (or type) the following command in the Run box, and then press ENTER:
wscui.cpl
In the Windows Security window, click Virus Protection.
If the software is turned on, view the information on the antivirus application, and note the application name.
Click Start, click All Programs, and then browse to and start the antivirus application.
Temporarily disable the software.
Note You may have to look in the application documentation to determine how to do this.
Step 2: Check for Windows Updates
As soon as the antivirus software is temporarily disabled, visit the Windows Update or Microsoft Update site again, and try to download and install updates.
If this method resolved your issue, and you were able to install the updates successfully, you should re-enable your third-party antivirus software. To do this, see
step 2 in Method B
.
If this method did not resolve your issue, continue with Method D.
Disable any software accelerator programs that may be running. Some examples of these programs are file download accelerators and Internet speed accelerators.
Note If your third-party firewall is still disabled from Method B, do not open e-mail messages, surf the Web, or use instant messenger at this point.
Step 1: Disable software accelerator programs
To do this, select from the following options:
See the documentation
that was included with the program.
View the Help files for your program.
Contact the program vendor.
For information about how to contact the program vendor, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
Step 2: Install Updates
As soon as the software accelerator program is disabled, visit the Windows Update or Microsoft Update site again, and try to download and install updates.
If this method resolved your issue, you should enable the software accelerator programs that you disabled in Step 1.
If this method did not resolve your issue, continue with Method E.
Note If your third-party firewall is still disabled from Method B, do not open e-mail messages, surf the Web, or use instant messenger at this point.
To add the Windows Update website and the Microsoft Update website to the Trusted Sites list, follow these steps:
Start Windows Internet Explorer.
On the Tools menu, click Internet
Options.
Note If you are using Internet Explorer, and the menu is not available, press the ALT key on your keyboard to access the Internet Explorer Menu.
Click the Security tab, and then click
Trusted Sites.
Click Sites, and then click to clear the
Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this
zone check box.
In the Add this website to the zone box,
type the following addresses, and then click Add after you type each
address:
http://update.microsoft.com
https://update.microsoft.com
http://*.update.microsoft.com
https://*.update.microsoft.com
http://download.windowsupdate.com
Click Close
Click OK
Try to install the updates again.
If this method resolved your issue and you were able to install updates successfully, you should re-enable your third-party firewall if it is still disabled. To do this, see
step 2 in Method B
.
If this method did not resolve your issue, continue with Method F.
Note If your third-party firewall is still disabled from Method B, do not open e-mail messages, surf the Web, or use instant messenger at this point.
For more information about how to make sure that you have the latest Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) update installed, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
842773
An
update package that includes BITS 2.0 and WinHTTP 5.1 is available for Windows Server 2003, for Windows XP, and for Windows 2000
If this method worked, and you were able to install the updates successfully, you are finished. However, if your third-party firewall is still disabled from Method B, you should re-enable it now. To do this, see
step 2 in Method B
.
If this method did not work for you, and you are comfortable with advanced troubleshooting, let's continue to the "Advanced troubleshooting" section.
If you are not comfortable with advanced troubleshooting, unfortunately this content is unable to help you any further. For your next steps, you might want to ask someone for help, or you might want to contact Support. To do this, please visit the following Microsoft website:
The troubleshooting methods and other information in the following section are for advanced users or for users who are in a corporate environment that currently uses hosts files and proxy servers.
Some programs may modify the hosts file to control DNS name resolution. Sometimes, an entry for the Windows Update website or for the Microsoft Update website may exist in the hosts file.
To remove entries
from the hosts file, follow these steps:
Click Start, and then click Run.
Copy and then paste (or type) the following command in the Run box, and then press ENTER:
notepad %windir%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
Note If you are prompted to select a program to open the
hosts file, click Notepad, click to
select the Always use the selected program option, and then
click OK.
In Notepad, remove or remark any lines in the
hosts file that contain entries for Windows Update so that
they are not read when the file is accessed. To do this, put the number sign
(#) in front of any line that contains "microsoft" and "update." For example,
add the number sign (#) to the beginning of the following entries:
# 64.4.21.125 http://update.microsoft.com
# 64.4.21.125
http://update.microsoft.com
# http://update.microsoft.com
On the File menu, click
Save.
Exit Notepad.
Restart the computer.
Note If you do not want to restart the computer, you can also flush the DNS resolver cache. To do this, follow these steps:
Click Start, and then click Run.
Type cmd in the Run box, and then press ENTER.
At the command prompt, type ipconfig /flushdns, and then press ENTER.
To remove the proxy server entry from the WinHTTP proxy configuration for Windows 7, follow these steps:
Click Start, and then type cmd in the Start programs and files box.
Right-click cmd.exe in the Programs list, and then click Run as administrator.
Note If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or click Continue.
Type the following command and then press Enter:
netsh winhttp show proxy
Note
The proxy setting is listed next to Proxy Server. If there is no proxy server, Direct Access <no proxy server> is shown in the Command Prompt window.
To remove the listed proxy setting, type the following command and then press Enter:
netsh winhttp reset proxy
Click Start, click All Programs, click Windows Update, and then try to download and install updates again.
Windows Vista
To remove the proxy server entry from the WinHTTP proxy configuration for Windows Vista, follow these steps:
Click Start, and then type cmd in the Start Search box.
Right-click cmd.exe in the Programs list, and then click Run as administrator.
Note If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or click Continue.
Type the following command and then press Enter:
netsh winhttp show proxy
Note
The proxy setting is listed next to Proxy Server. If there is no proxy server, Direct Access <no proxy server> is shown in the Command Prompt window.
To remove the listed proxy setting, type the following command and then press Enter:
netsh winhttp reset proxy
Click Start, click All Programs, click Windows Update, and then try to download and install updates again.
Windows XP and Windows Server 2003
To remove the proxy server entry from the WinHTTP proxy configuration for Windows XP and for Windows Server 2003, follow these steps:
Open Internet Explorer.
On the Tools menu, click Internet
Options.
Click the Connections tab, and then click
LAN Settings.
In the Local Area Network (LAN) Settings
dialog box, click to select the Automatically detect settings
check box, and then click OK.
Exit Internet Explorer.
Click Start, and then click Run.
Copy and then paste (or type) the following command in the Run box, and then press ENTER:
cmd
Type the following commands. Press ENTER after each
command.
proxycfg -d
net stop wuauserv
net start wuauserv
exit
Go back to the Windows Update or Microsoft Update site and try to download and install the updates again.
If you are a corporate users or user who is behind a proxy server, see the
following Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) article for information about how the
Windows Update client detects and uses proxy servers:
900935
How the Windows Update client
determines which proxy server to use to connect to the Windows Update Web
site
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