Windows Update Error 800B0001

A few days ago some of our Windows 7 clients were having a Windows Update error, the specific message was

Windows could not search for new updates

An error occurred while checking for new updates for your computer.

Error(s) found:

Code 800B0001 Windows Update  encountered an unknown error.

The funny thing was the clients could still get updates from Microsoft Update however anything from our Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) Server would result in this error message.

As it turns out Microsoft had updated the Windows Update client on Windows 7 and that an update (the number is KB2720211) was required on the WSUS server to allow the clients to continue to update.

Simple solution is to approve this update in WSUS and apply it to your servers, a bit of a pain is that this update requires a reboot of the server but hey its that or no updates for your clients!

For a nice walk through see the screenshots below

Update – For Windows Server 2012

A further update has been released to allow WSUS 3.0 SP2 to provide updates for Windows Server 2012 – details can be found at KB2938066.