Just yesterday I installed a brand new instance of 2008R2, I run this as a VMWARE virutual machine. I am unable to update windows on this new server, I keep getting the error message Code 8024402F unknown error. On another instance of 2008R2 which is virtualized in the same way I did some research and found I actually could not run windows update from VM console and had to RD into the machine, this did work. Now with this instance neither works. I have deleted the VM and created a new server with the same results. This is VERY frustating, why something so simple needs to cause so much problems. I have verified connectivity to the internet, I have the firewall turned off and Explorer enhanced security. I dont even have any Virus protection on the server yet. Any ideas would be appreciated.

To be frank, I had encountered exactly same error on 2008 R2 VMs running on ESX 4.0, ESXi 4.0 and ESXi 4.1. And 4 out of 5 instances, I could fix this error with below steps. 1. If you are using a VM Template to deploy the OS, make sure you customize the image and allow VMware to change SID ! 2. As soon as VM is powered on, install VMware Tools. 3. Always use vmxnet3 as NIC for your virtual machines. 4. Make sure your OS is activated either through KMS or directly connecting MS website. 5. Turn off windows firewall and try updating the patches. That said, there are always chances that nothing would work and you would need to re-image the OS ( I am not sure why ? ) however, probability is 1 out of 5. Also, please have look at following articles... http://windows.microsoft.com/en-IN/windows7/Windows-Update-error-80244016-8024402f-or-c80003fa http://support.microsoft.com/kb/836941 HTH

Ridiculous, after struggling with this problem for 2 days, I gave up and promoted the server to a DC. Tried it again and it worked. Please someone explain that to me..