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Fix for Windows Server 2016 Stuck at “Downloading 0%” from WSUS server – UpdateServiceUrlAlternate Registry Key

I ran into an issue recently with our Windows Server 2016 servers not installing their updates. Instead, all our 2016 servers would get stuck with the message “Updates are available. Downloading updates 0%” however they would never actually download the updates. These servers were configured to our WSUS server, which was also a Server 2016 machine.

The first thing I investigated was to look at the logs on the client server. I tried using the Get-WindowsUpdateLog cmdlet in Powershell, however, the log that was generated was useless because every line had no date and no format information (what the hell, Microsoft!). The logs look like this:

1601/01/01 09:30:00.0000000 872   1104                  Unknown( 39): GUID=50a5ef43-b2b6-3c52-145b-a386d8769665 (No Format Information found).
1601/01/01 09:30:00.0000000 872   1104                  Unknown( 38): GUID=50a5ef43-b2b6-3c52-145b-a386d8769665 (No Format Information found).
1601/01/01 09:30:00.0000000 872   1104                  Unknown( 34): GUID=7b9bf239-47b9-3688-3a9e-14f09f262608 (No Format Information found).
1601/01/01 09:30:00.0000000 872   1104                  Unknown( 39): GUID=50a5ef43-b2b6-3c52-145b-a386d8769665 (No Format Information found).
1601/01/01 09:30:00.0000000 872   1104                  Unknown( 38): GUID=50a5ef43-b2b6-3c52-145b-a386d8769665 (No Format Information found).
1601/01/01 09:30:00.0000000 872   1104                  Unknown( 34): GUID=7b9bf239-47b9-3688-3a9e-14f09f262608 (No Format Information found).
1601/01/01 09:30:00.0000000 872   1104                  Unknown( 39): GUID=50a5ef43-b2b6-3c52-145b-a386d8769665 (No Format Information found).

However, after investigating the registry keys on one of our servers, I saw a new registry key that I didn’t recognise, UpdateServiceUrlAlternate. See this dump from Powershell:

PS C:\Users\me\Desktop> ls HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\


    Hive: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows


Name                           Property
----                           --------
Appx
BITS                           EnableBitsMaxBandwidth     : 0
                               MaxBandwidthValidFrom      : 9
                               MaxBandwidthValidTo        : 17
                               MaxTransferRateOnSchedule  : 1000
                               MaxTransferRateOffSchedule : 9999
CurrentVersion
DataCollection
EnhancedStorageDevices         TCGSecurityActivationDisabled : 0
IPSec
Network Connections            NC_PersonalFirewallConfig : 0
NetworkConnectivityStatusIndic (default) :
ator
NetworkProvider
safer
SettingSync                    EnableBackupForWin8Apps : 1
System
WcmSvc
WindowsUpdate                  UpdateServiceUrlAlternate                    : http://localhost:8005
                               WUServer                                     : http://wsusserver.domainname.au:8530
                               WUStatusServer                               : http://wsus.domainname.au:8530
                               ElevateNonAdmins                             : 0
                               DoNotConnectToWindowsUpdateInternetLocations : 1
                               TargetGroupEnabled                           : 1
                               TargetGroup                                  : Auto Patch2
WorkplaceJoin                  (default) :
WSDAPI

After investigating this for a while, I found that the UpdateServiceUrlAlternate is a new setting introduced in the 2017 January update for Windows 10 1607 (and Server 2016, it would seem). For more details, see the Microsoft Documentation for UpdateServiceUrlAlternate.

We discovered that we had not been setting this with our current Group Policy, because we were using ADMX templates that were released before this was added. After updating our ADMX templates and setting that value to nothing, the updates download and install correctly again.

6 replies on “Fix for Windows Server 2016 Stuck at “Downloading 0%” from WSUS server – UpdateServiceUrlAlternate Registry Key”

Thank you! After updating the ADMX templates on our domain controller Server 2016 finally started to download updates.

There are many suggestions on internet but this is the only one works for me.

you are like super hero for me..
kuddos to your article. i almost searched more than thousand pages and all they wanted to do run troubleshoot and software distribution rename.

many thanks to you..

Hi Jie Ma,
You can just search for “Windows 10 admx” to find the latest admx templates:
https://lmddgtfy.net/?q=Windows%2010%20admx

Updating is done by extracting the new admx files, then overwriting the files in the sysvol folder of the domain. Make sure to take a backup of the folder before starting, in case you need to revert. For more details on this process you will need to search online, I’ve just done a quick search and this looks like a guide:
https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/itops-talk-blog/step-by-step-managing-windows-10-with-administrative-admx/ba-p/842926

Be careful and stay safe!
Jay

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