What do I do if the "8000FFFF Windows Update encountered an unknown error" error message appears when I install Windows updates on a Windows Server 2008 instance? - Elastic Compute Service

This topic describes the cause of the following issue and how to resolve the issue: The "8000FFFF Windows Update encountered an unknown error" error message appears when you install Windows updates on an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance that runs Windows Server 2008.

Problem description

When you install Windows updates on an ECS instance that runs Windows Server 2008, the "8000FFFF Windows Update encountered an unknown error" error message appears.

Cause

Windows updates cannot be installed as expected on the instance because no permissions on the C drive are configured for Users.

Solutions

Solution 1

Connect to the Windows instance.
For more information, see Connect to a Windows instance by using a password.
Open the Computer window. Right-click the C drive and select Properties. In the Local Disk (C:) Properties dialog box, click the Security tab and then click Edit. In the Permissions for Local Disk (C:) dialog box, click Add. In the Select Users or Groups dialog box, click Advanced. In the new Select Users or Groups dialog box, click Find Now and select Users in the Search results section. In the Permissions for Local Disk (C:) dialog box, select Read & Execute, List folder contents, and Read in the Permissions section to grant the permissions to Users. Then, click OK.
Re-install Windows updates.
Delete the permissions that are granted to Users.
For security reasons, delete the permissions that are granted to Users after the Windows updates are installed.

Solution 2

If you cannot use Solution 1 to resolve the issue, perform the following steps:

Connect to the Windows instance.
For more information, see Connect to a Windows instance by using a password.
Right-click Start, select Run, and then enter cmd to start Command Prompt.
Run the following commands in sequence to stop the Automatic Updates service and Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS):
```
net stop wuauserv
net stop bits
```
A command output similar to the following one is displayed.
Delete the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder.
In the Command Prompt window, run the following commands in sequence to start the Automatic Updates service and BITS:
Note
When the Automatic Updates service and BITS are started, the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder is automatically created.
```
net start wuauserv
net start bits
```
Run the following command to stop the Cryptographic Services:
```
net stop cryptsvc
```
Change the name of the C:\windows\System32\catroot2 folder to C:\windows\System32\catroot2.bak.
After the C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder is created, the Windows operating system checks for updates.
In the Command Prompt window, run the following command:
```
wuauclt.exe /resetauthorization /detectnow
```
Wait for approximately 15 minutes and then check whether the Windows operating system detects updates.