Just finished installing Windows 2003 Server with SP1. And I got the 0x80072F8F error when I tried to “Windows Update” it.
Microsoft’s suggestions?
- Date/time is wrong on the server.
- Some DLLs need to be (re)registered.
- Disable the check for server certificate revocation.
None of those worked. So I manually upgraded Windows 2003 SP2. That didn’t work even.
And Windows activation failed. That’ll be a clue. I swapped the server to a different network, and Windows Update magically worked. The underlying cause is (our internal) network related, and when I finish server testing, I’ll break out the network sniffer.
Update: we have a new proxy server, which blocks WindowsUpdate and Windows Activation.