From time to time patch installations will fail during our OS deployment process leaving the workstation not fully patched. Once a machine has finished imaging someone from the deployment group will usually do a spot check and connect to Windows Update just to ensure that the workstation is fully patched. Last week I started to notice that many of the new Windows 7 workstations would not connect to Windows Update and get the following error:
An error occurred while checking for new updates for your computer.
Error(s) found:
Code 80072F8F
Checking online I found a Microsoft article that explained that this error usually results from a time mismatch between your machine and the Windows Update servers. However, these workstations were members of our domain and all of the time settings were correct. I found another post referencing root cert problems and the Windows Update error 80072F8F which reminded me of my post about Windows 7 failing to update its root certificates and causing Windows Live Messenger sign-in to fail. After updating to the latest root certificates (KB931125) Windows Update connected just fine.
