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.
- 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
- 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:
- Press Win + R on your keyboard and enter services.msc.
- Find the Windows Update service and stop it;
- Open the File Explorer, go to the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder, and delete everything inside;
- 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.
31 comments
Hi ,
Thanks for your post
I did all the steps , but still have the same problem !!
Thanks for the info, the proxy commands did it for me ;)
Now, what kind of spyware could have done this? How can I get rid of it?
Thanks again, this is a very helpful site!
i do all above steps but my problem not fix . when started my problem that i download windows update software from microsoft site i havent any problem befor download it
My solution was totally different.
I realized that my win 7 update was pointing to a WSUS server that I had no access to.
So I delete all links in regedit pointing to that server and changed an agent in services to manual.
That worked, spend 3 days trying to solve it. :)
Thank you for this suggestion point no. 3 worked for me greatly now i can update my win 7, i had made a bios update then patched win with windows loader and some how the above error showed up but for ur suggestion its worked wonders thankss a lot once again….
i have tried these steps and still it says this error, some websites are slow to load also, i got no virus’ or anything, its fresh out the box, i bought it today and im having all these problems for the past 10 hours and im getting fed up of this crap
ive tried all the suggestions and it wont work. still getting this windows update error 80072ee2:
also my home internet wont allow me to access email sites, facebook, or banking sites. so pretty much any security based sites will not work.
While execute #3 for the 80072ee2 error code solution none of the following dll’s are recognized when executing the regsvr32 command: and register the following dlls: oleaut32.dll, jscript.dll, vbscript.dll, msxml.dll, softpub.dll, wintrust.dll, initpki.dll, cryptdlg.dll.
Please help.
Thank you.
Hi, When I try to load the msxml.dll it stated with:
[[[[[[The module “msxml.dll” failed to load.
Make sure the binary is stored at the specified path or debug it to check for problems with the binary or dependent .DLL files.
The specified module could not be found. ]]]]]]]]]
The same with inipki.dll
Please help…
Thanks
I am not using a proxy and there is not one that was set up by spyware. verified through the command instructions in #2. It says failed to load program when i try to register the .dll files. And i am not sure how to change the setting of my computer’s MTU level. Please Help!
Thanks so much. The mtu fix worked for windows update. Now to get microsoft security essentials to update. I did system restore to factory fresh on an old laptop and couldn’t get updates. Hopefully windows update will fix whatever is broken with microsoft security essentials.
Many manufacturers distributed images with a policy set defining a automatic update server. The concise answer to this problem is to remove that registry key. The key is:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftWindowsWindowsUpdateAU
remove this key, reboot, and windows updagte will work.
Thank you for commenting. Yes our Solution #5 points to an article which does exactly as you mention, removing the registry key.
There’s no WindowsUpdate folder for me
If there isn’t any WindowsUpdate folder than you probably don’t have a distributed image and so Solution #5 won’t work as a fix.
#5 worked for me. I guess Dell has a WSUS server. Deleted the keys (and entries for Update servers in the WindowsUpdate key), restarted Windows Update service and away we went.
Glad that one of the solutions worked for you!
I’m trying #3 but it says it doesn’t recognize that as a command, program, or batch file.
I notice the “32” when trying to fix registry entries – does it matter that my windows 7 is 64 bit?
Having this issue on a SBS 2011 box. Clients are no longer getting updated. Can’t update the server it self as well. Nothing seems to work. tried 1-4 and nothing worked. 5 didn’t apply as this was not installed by OEM. WSUS also doesn’t allow me to check the settings. It locks up every time. the only thing I can think of is that we used the wizard in SBS to move the data repository as it was on C and we were running out of disk space. So we moved it to D via the wizard. Any Idea?
I’m having this same problem at Windows. it looks like the are blocked but the firewall is off.
and I just can’t update from Win7 to Win10…
I tried the second step. For many, it was successful, others showed “The module was loaded but the call to DLLRegisterServer failed with error code 0x80004005”
I followed the steps provided, but non of them worked, i read somewhere else it could be something to do with the SBS firewall. Temp turned it off, and low and behold. Updating no problems. Added the window supdate websites by hand, turned it all back on and now no issues.
I have this problem as well. I’ve tried all the solution windows recommends and also all the ones you have also. still doesn’t want to update. My notification flag says windows update can not update automaticly, but when I try manualyit still doesn’t work. So I figured I will just do my free windows 100 upgrade. Well guess what? It doesn’t work either. All that happens is a page opens that says windows 10 then closes real fast. Super bummed. Can you help?
Thanks so much for your time,
Andy
I fix it. Just go to HKLMSoftwarePoliciesMicrosoft WindowsWindowsUpdate and adjust the WSUS server settings (server name and IP address).
Hi
On a freshly installed Windows Server 2008 R2 I have the following issue: I cannot download files from certain websites.
For example
– from drive.google.com/drive/my-drive the download runs perfectly
– from download.oracle.com/otn/nt the download starts but then it stops after a few secconds and some downloaded KB.
This happens no matter of the browser; even installation kits or other software (including windows update) that are trying to download data from various internet locations are facing the same issue. All the other computers in the same network are working fine.
I tried all the steps above (and some additional ones) but nothing worked. Last thing I tried was to set the MTU to 1430. I used 1430 because pinging with packets of 1430 worked fine. After I rebooted the computer pinging with 1430 did not work anymore and I could not find a suitable value.
Does anybody know what may be the issue?
Thanks for the tutorial. It worked.
Thanks its very useful
Thanks for this. I was struggling with this and most answers out there are very generic and don’t help. Knowing that the code means we can’t access Windows Update to check for updates leads to the solution relatively quickly! In our case, we use a proxy script, and on this new server it had not been configured.
THANK YOU OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH
In my case it had something to do with a second NIC on my server. When disabling of putting in the right configuration on the 2nd NIC, everything went fine. So dumb… so simple…. must have overlooked it 15 times.
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