Windows 11 update failure stops machines from updating to version 24H2 using WSUS

Windows Update
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Most Windows updates come with a plethora of features and patches to address security issues, making the forced reboot well worth it. Going forward, we might not even need to restart to update Windows nearly as often. However, a recent update to Windows 11 is causing issues for both business and enterprise users, preventing the machines from upgrading to Windows 11 24H2.

A recent blog post from Microsoft confirmed the issue and isolated it to an update released on April 8th. Machines using the Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) application are now having trouble updating to Windows 11 24H2. The issue does not affect Windows 11 Home users.

If you're not familiar with WSUS, we'll catch you up to speed. This application is designed for servers to schedule updates to batches of machines in an enterprise environment. WSUS lets administrators choose when to delay or even skip certain updates entirely. This is the main source of the update failure, which is why Windows 11 Home users are largely unaffected.

Users might encounter several errors with the issue. When Windows 11 24H2 tries to deploy, it's unable to complete and will return specific codes in the update logs. Users will see error code 0x80240069 listed along with text that states, "Service wuauserv has unexpectedly stopped."

Microsoft hasn’t issued a fix as of this writing, but the team has confirmed that a resolution is being investigated. Microsoft plans to provide an update to the public regarding the matter when a solution is available to roll out. In the meantime, users cannot update to Windows 11 24H2 if they received the April 8th update.

Microsoft confirmed that the versions of Windows 11 that are most likely to be affected are Windows 11 23H2 and Windows 11 22H2. Again, Windows 11 Home users don't rely on WSUS for updates and shouldn't encounter any of the issues outlined by the recent failure.

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Ash Hill
Contributing Writer

Ash Hill is a contributing writer for Tom's Hardware with a wealth of experience in the hobby electronics, 3D printing and PCs. She manages the Pi projects of the month and much of our daily Raspberry Pi reporting while also finding the best coupons and deals on all tech.

  • FunSurfer
    Well as a Windows 11 Pro 24H2 home user I don't have this failure, but I do have that Windows Update service bug that "Microsoft\Windows\DeviceDirectry\Client\RegisterUserDevice" prevents PC shutdown.
    Reply