How to Solve the Windows Update Error 80072ee2?

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Windows Update errors are notoriously difficult to solve. This happens not because solutions require some difficult hacks, or they are tremendously time-consuming. It is difficult because the system provides a lack of explanation on how to solve Windows Update error 80072ee2 or any other similar issue.

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For your information. There is no official guide on how to solve Windows Update error 80072ee2. Our guide consists of different things people report helpful. Users had a different extent of luck with all these methods. Some may work and help you successfully solve the error, others may not.

Error 80072ee2 is common to all modern Windows versions, starting from Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 R2 to Windows 11/Windows Server 2022. This error appears when you try installing updates via the local WSUS server, or when downloading updates directly from the Windows Update over the Internet.

80072ee2: Why is This Error Occurs?

First, you need to find out what causes error 80072ee2. When you try to connect to the Windows Update servers to download the latest updates, the system cannot establish a connection, hence the error message is displayed on your screen. That is one of the few reasons why Windows Update shows error 80072ee2.

Other related error messages may state the following:

Windows could not search for new updates. An error occurred while checking for new updates for your computer. Error(s) found: Code 80072EE2

Solutions for the Windows Update Error 80072ee2

According to the available information from Microsoft, error code 80072ee2 means the following: ERROR_INTERNET_TIMEOUT (-2147012894). The request has timed out. In other words, Windows cannot access the Microsoft Update or WSUS server.

Windows Update Error 80072ee2 Solution 0: Check Your Settings

The first thing you need to do when troubleshooting any Internet-related issue is to make sure your computer has a proper time and date settings. Although it may sound weird, time and date issues are one of the most popular reasons why people have issues like 80072ee2. Go to Windows Settings and make sure the date and time are properly set. Do not forget to check the time zone too.

You can try enabling automatic date, time, and time zone. In case your PC sets incorrect values, change the time and date manually.

Solution 1. Check Your Internet Connection and Access to Windows Update Websites

If you read this article, we assume you have an Internet connection but we recommend you double-check this and make sure your PC can access the Internet. Just run your favorite browser and open any website.

Fix Windows 80072ee2 Error Solution 3. Is the Windows Update Down?

There might be reasons for 80072ee2 errors that are not related to your fault, your system, or your configuration. Something may be down on the Microsoft site. To make sure Windows Update services are up and running, go to www.isitdownrightnow.com service and make sure it says update.microsoft.com is UP. If it says that the server is down, simply sit back and wait for Microsoft to fix their mess.

Error 80072ee2 Solution 2. Run Windows 10 Update Troubleshooter

If you struggle to fix the error 80072ee2 on Windows 10 or 11, try to fix the Windows Update service and related components errors automatically using the built-in tools. To do this, launch the Windows Update Troubleshooter—a powerful built-in Windows error troubleshooting subsystem that helps millions of users to fix Windows Update errors every day.

1. Open Windows Settings using Win + I and go to Update and Security – Troubleshoot. Select the Windows Update and hit Run the troubleshooter.
   Or run the command:

   msdt.exe /id WindowsUpdateDiagnostic

   

2. Wait for the system to run all the necessary checks, perform Windows Update reset, and make sure everything works. After you see the troubleshooter report, try downloading the updates again.

For your information. The instruction above applies only to Windows 10 and 11. Windows 8.1 and Windows 7 do not have a built-in Windows Update troubleshooter to fix the 80072ee2 error. You can use a standalone troubleshooter for older Windows systems from Microsoft (aka.ms).

Windows Update 80072ee2 Error Solution 3. Check Proxy and Firewall Settings

Check if you are using a proxy server. If you do, double-check the settings in Internet Explorer and make sure the proxy does not require a username or password to connect. If it does, the easiest way is to disable the proxy server for the period of checking, downloading, and applying Windows Updates. You can also apply a workaround by setting your firewall to allow the connection to the Windows Update directly without using the proxy.

If you are connecting to the Internet through a firewall, make sure the following website addresses are allowed in its settings:

• *windowsupdate.microsoft.com/*
• *update.microsoft.com/*
• *.windowsupdate.com/*
• *download.microsoft.com/*
• *test.stats.update.microsoft.com/*
• www.msftncsi.com/ncsi*
• *ntservicepack.microsoft.com/*

Check the availability of Windows Update nodes from your computer using the commands:

ping download.microsoft.com

traceroute download.microsoft.com

test-netconnection download.microsoft.com

If the hosts are not available, check your computer’s network settings (double-check if you are using dual NIC configuration), firewalls, and ISP connectivity.

If you can access the Internet from your local network only through a proxy server, you can check the system proxy settings as follows. List the current system proxy settings for WinHTTP:

netsh winhttp show proxy

Go to the next solution if the previous command returned the following message:

Current WinHTTP proxy settings:

Direct access (no proxy server).

Fixing Windows Update Error 80072ee2 Solution 4. Reset the Proxy Server Settings

The modified proxy server inside your browser may be a sign of spyware or malware intrusion. If you suspect this, make sure your antivirus software is up to date and running well.

If the netsh winhttp show proxy command returned the current proxy settings for WinHTTP and you see they are incorrect, reset them. To reset proxy server settings, launch the Command Prompt with Administrator privileges and enter the following commands:

netsh winhttp reset proxy

netsh winhttp import proxy source=ie

You can also specify the proxy server settings manually. Do this only if you know the proxy server address and the connection port:

netsh winhttp set proxy proxy-server="192.168.1.11:3128" bypass-list="*.yourlocaldomain.com"

All that is left is to restart the Windows Update service using the following commands:

net stop wuauserv & net start wuauserv

Solve Error 80072ee2 Solution 5. Re-register Windows Update DLL Files

Some DLL (dynamically linked libraries) files might have become unregistered or corrupted due to various factors. This can cause the Windows update error 80072ee2. In this case, open the Command Prompt with Administrator privileges (also known as elevated) and re-register Windows Update DLL files by pasting the following lines:

regsvr32 oleaut32.dll

regsvr32 jscript.dll

regsvr32 vbscript.dll

regsvr32 softpub.dll

regsvr32 msxml.dll

regsvr32 wintrust.dll

regsvr32 initpki.dll

regsvr32 cryptdlg.dll

Now you need to stop the Windows Update service, clear its cache and launch it back so you can check whether what you did has fixed the 80072ee2 error or not. Here’s how to do that:

1. Press Win + R on your keyboard and enter services.msc.
2. Find the Windows Update service and stop it;
   
3. Open the File Explorer, go to the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder, and delete everything inside;
   
4. Go back to the Services window and start the Windows Update service.

Solution 6: Reset Windows Update Agent Setting

You can reset the current agent and Windows Update services settings using the ResetWUEng script. Download ResetWUEng.cmd from Github, and run it as Administrator.

Select the menu item 2 in the script that stands for Resets the Windows Update Components. After completing all the steps, restart the computer using item 17.

Solution 7: Change MTU Setting to 1492

A wrong MTU setting can also cause an 80072ee2 error. This is one of the rarest reasons why error 80072ee2 happens, but your computer’s MTU setting might be incorrect.

Check the current MTU value using the following command within the elevated Command Prompt:

netsh interface ipv4 show subinterfaces

In our case, the default MTU value for the main network LAN interface (Ethernet 0) is 1500. You can change the MTU value to 1492 using the next command:

netsh interface ipv4 set subinterface "Ethernet" mtu=1492 store=persistent

If another non-standard MTU value is used, you can reset it using the command:

netsh interface ipv4 reset

In this case, you need to set the MTU value to 1492, and try Windows Update again.

Solution 8. Fixing Error 0x80072ee2 Then Updating via WSUS

If you receive Windows Updates from the internal Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) server, open the Registry Editor (regedit.exe) and go to the registry key HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate.

Check the WUServer and WUStatusServer names and make sure they are correct. If not, enter a valid FQDN or IP address of your WSUS server.

If you do not want to use the internal WSUS (but you want to receive updates directly from Windows Update), remove these parameters from the registry. Then restart the “Windows Update” service with the following command:

net stop wuauserv && net start wuauserv

Solution 8. Lack of Resources in the AppPool WSUS

If you are using the WSUS server to distribute Windows Update to your clients, perhaps the error is due to a lack of resources in the WSUS IIS AppPool on a server. The solution is to remove the limit on the consumed memory.

Open IIS Manager Console > Application Pools > WsusPool > Advanced Settings. Change Private Memory Limit to and restart IIS.

Solution 9. Error 80072ee2 on a Guest VM on Hyper-V

Sometimes, you may encounter the situation (while using a Hyper-V) in which Windows does not want to update within the virtual machine (we ran into this on Windows Server 2008 R2). The system returns an error 80072EE2 and does not give any explanation. As it turned out, the error is related to the transmission parameter of large packets in the properties of the host network card. As a host, we have a physical server on which Hyper-V is deployed.

To solve the problem, run the Device Manager on the Hyper-V host and open the properties of the physical network card:

Go to the Advanced tab, find and disable two settings named Large Send Offload V2 (IPv4) and Large Send Offload V2 (IPv6). These settings are responsible for segmenting the network adapter of large data packets.

Save the changes and perform a new update search on the virtual machine.

Solution 10: Update Windows 7/2008R2 Devices to Support SHA-2 Endpoints

You may encounter the error 80072ee2 if you try to check for updates after September 2019 on a clean installed Windows 7 SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1, or Windows Server 2008 SP2. The RTM versions of these OSs use the SHA-1 hashing algorithm to connect to the Windows Update service endpoint. Since September 2019, Microsoft has completely discontinued SHA-1 based endpoints for older Windows devices.

Due to several shortcomings of the SHA-1 algorithm and the need to comply with modern industry standards, Microsoft began to sign Windows updates exclusively using the more secure SHA-2 algorithm.

If you are trying to connect to Windows Update from older versions of Windows, you will receive an error:

Error code 80072ee2: The device cannot connect to Windows Update.

Your older Windows devices can continue to use Windows Update by manually installing certain updates that allow you to connect to the SHA-2 service endpoints.

Hint. In all modern Windows versions starting from Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012, all the connections to Windows Update service endpoints are established using the more modern algorithm (SHA-256).

To continue using Windows Update for your older Windows devices, you need to download and install the following two specific updates:

Update 1: SHA-2 Code Signing Support

This update will allow your device to verify updates signatures by using more secure SHA-2 hashing algorithms:

• KB4474419 — SHA-2 code signing support update (Windows 7 SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1);
• KB4484071 — SHA2 support for your WSUS server running Windows Server Update Services 3.0 SP1 or 3.2. The only case when you need to install this update is if you are using this WSUS version to deploy update on Windows device in your corporate network.

Update 2: SHA-2 Related Servicing Stack Updates

Apply this update in order the Windows Update servicing stack could validate SHA-2 signatures and direct affected Windows devices to communicate with the SHA-2 based service endpoints of Windows Update.

• KB4490628 — Servicing stack update for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1;
• KB4493730 — WU Service Stack Updates for Windows Server 2008 SP2.

These updates must be manually installed immediately after installing Windows. After that, the wuauserv service will start receiving updates from Windows Update or WSUS as usual.

Fix Error 80072ee2 Solution 11. Manual Updates Installation

If you know which specific update you need to install but you cannot due to Windows Update error 80072ee2, try installing them manually from Windows Update Catalog. All you need to know is which Windows version you have (for example, Windows 10 21H2 Professional x64) and the update codename (for example, KB5014699, according to https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/windows-10-update-history-857b8ccb-71e4-49e5-b3f6-7073197d98fb).

Go to the Windows Update Catalog website and enter the update code in the search field. Locate the update you need and make sure it is the one for your system. Here is how to interpret the name of each update. For example, here’s the update name:

2022-06 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 21H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5014699)

It means you have an update for June 2022 for computers with Windows 10 version 1903 and later with x64-based processors.

Download the update manually and launch the .msu file. Wait for the system to install the update and then restart your computer.

Some Additional Tips to Troubleshoot and Fix the Windows Update Error

Check Windows Update Search and Scan Errors in the Windows Update Log File

In some cases, the errors and their descriptions in this file may help you find the source of the problem:

• In Windows 7/8.1 and Windows Server 2008R2/2012R2 you can open this file by using the command:

  notepad c:\Windows\WindowsUpdate.log

• On Windows 10/11 and Windows Server 2022/2019/2016, you must first generate the windowsupdate.log file using PowerShell:

  Get-WindowsUpdateLog -logpath C:\temp\WindowsUpdate.log

Then list only error lines from this file with the Select-String cmdlet:

Get-Content C:\temp\WindowsUpdate.log | Select-String -pattern "error"

Check for Free Space on Your Hard Drives

Windows Update won’t be able to download the update if the system disk runs out of free space:

Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_LogicalDisk | Select-Object -Property DeviceID,@{'Name' = 'FreeSpace (GB)'; Expression= { [int]($_.FreeSpace / 1GB) }}

If all else fails, you can reset the network and TCP-IP network stack settings on your computer. In Windows 10 and 11 you can reset the network settings through the Settings panel (Settings > Network & Internet > Status > Network reset > Reset now > Yes).

Those are all known ways how to fix the Windows update error 80072ee2. In case you still cannot fix the error, leave a comment below and we will try to assist you.