Here we go again: another server, another error. Why can’t things just work properly? Had a consultant e-mail me they couldn’t load .NET Framework 3.5 on Windows Server 2019. “Easy peasy lemon squeezy” I thought. Well, of course, it wasn’t that easy. Attempts to load this feature ended up with error code 0x800f0954. What in the hades is error code 0x800f0954?
Time to hit the Google and wow, there’s a bunch of random articles on this error code. I already had a hunch this had something to do with WSUS. We use SCCM in our environment and SCCM sets the WSUS server in the client registry to a WSUS server without any binaries, an empty WSUS server if you will. I usually fix that by deleting the whole registry key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU. The SCCM client will recreate this key periodically. Unfortunately, this did not work. Where to look? Our old friend C:\windows\logs\cbs\cbs.log and we find:
2023-11-01 13:12:37, Info CBS External EvaluateApplicability, package: Package_8_for_KB5031005~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.4069.1, package applicable State: Installed, highest update applicable state: Installed, resulting applicable state:Installed
2023-11-01 13:12:37, Info CBS External EvaluateApplicability, package: Package_for_DotNetRollup~31bf3856ad364e35~amd64~~10.0.4069.1, package applicable State: Installed, highest update applicable state: Installed, resulting applicable state:Installed
2023-11-01 13:12:37, Info CBS DLWD: Expecting search returns 1 update, actual:0 [HRESULT = 0x800f0954 - CBS_E_INVALID_WINDOWS_UPDATE_COUNT_WSUS]
2023-11-01 13:12:37, Info CBS DWLD:Failed to do Windows update search [HRESULT = 0x800f0954 - CBS_E_INVALID_WINDOWS_UPDATE_COUNT_WSUS]
2023-11-01 13:12:37, Info CBS FC: WindowsUpdateDownloadFromUUP returns. [0x800F0954]
2023-11-01 13:12:37, Error CBS FC: CFCAcquirerWUClient::Download(136): Result = 0x800F0954
2023-11-01 13:12:37, Error CBS FC: CFCAcquirerWrapper::Execute(147): Result = 0x800F0954
2023-11-01 13:12:37, Info CBS Exec: Failed to download FOD from WU, retry onece. [HRESULT = 0x800f0954 - CBS_E_INVALID_WINDOWS_UPDATE_COUNT_WSUS]
It IS a WSUS problem, but why didn’t deleting the WindowsUpdate registry key help? Well, it appears the WindowsUpdate service only reads this registry key when it starts and if you change or delete this key after it’s running you have to restart the service so it takes note of the new changes. Oh, I like the misspelling of “retry onece” in the logs.
It also didn’t matter if I tried to point Powershell or DISM directly to the binaries in the SxS folder, it wasn’t having anything of that without being able to reach out to Windows Update. Odd.
What’s so frustrating is that I cannot find this error code in any lookup tool such as helpmsg or cmtrace. It’s not documented anywhere I can find. If the program had spit out the whole error message instead of just some random hex code, I could have saved 30 minutes of my life doing something really important, like fixing someone’s Office 365 mailbox that they deleted all of the e-mails out of (oof).
- Soli Deo Gloria