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Categories: Active DirectoryInternetMicrosoftWindows 10Windows Server

Windows 10 Fall Creators (and April 2018 version 1803, October 2018 version 1809, May 2019 version 1903) Update stuck on “Downloading Updates” from WSUS

Well, it’s October 18th 2017 and the Fall Creators update (Feature update to Windows 10, version 1709) is now available for download. In my particular environment, I use WSUS to deploy and manage updates.

Update: It’s now May 2018, and this article also applies to Windows 10 April 2018 update version 1803 as well!

Update: It’s now October 2018, and this article also applies to Windows 10 October 2018 update version 1809 as well!

Update: It’s now May 2019, and this article also applies to Windows 10 May 2019 update version 1903 as well!

I went ahead earlier today and approved the updates for deployment, however I noticed an issue on multiple Windows 10 machines, where the Windows Update client would get stuck on Downloading updates 0% status.

I checked a bunch of things, but noticed that it simply couldn’t download the updates from my WSUS server. Further investigation found that the feature updates are packaged in .esd files and IIS may not be able to serve these properly without a minor modification. I remember applying this fix in the past, however I’m assuming it was removed by a prior update on my Windows Server 2012 R2 server.

If you are experiencing this issue, here’s the fix:

  1. On your server running WSUS and IIS, open up the IIS manager.
  2. Expand Sites, and select “WSUS Administration”
  3. On the right side, under IIS, select “MIME Types”
  4. Make sure there is not a MIME type for .esd, if there is, you’re having a different issue, if not, continue with the instructions.
  5. Click on “Add” on the right Actions pane.
  6. File name extension will be “.esd” (without quotations), and MIME type will be “application/octet-stream” (without quotations).
  7. Reset IIS or restart WSUS/IIS server

You’ll notice the clients will now update without a problem! Happy Updating!

Stephen Wagner

Stephen Wagner is President of Digitally Accurate Inc., an IT Consulting, IT Services and IT Solutions company. Stephen Wagner is also a VMware vExpert, NVIDIA NGCA Advisor, and HPE Influencer, and also specializes in a number of technologies including Virtualization and VDI.

View Comments

  • Saved my day! Thank you! MS still doesn't have official solution for this. Can't believe them.

  • Thank you this is exactly what I needed to resolve the dreaded 0% downloaded for 1709.

  • Thank you - the soltion works well and now my updates are downloaded from the wsus server.

  • We had same issue, thanks for the quick fix! Microsoft's technet was no help. Now all my upgrades are flying out the door. Many thanks!

  • Thanks so much. Not like there was anything I could find from MS on this. Though AV, appreciate it greatly.

  • Many thanks for that, the problem had been driving me crazy for the last 2 weeks, well, the last week not, I was on leave, but got back this morning to find my test machines still hadn't been updated.

    Applied the patch and et voilá!

  • gopher: Worth noting that this is Microsoft's official solution, albeit their instructions are a bit disorganized and scattered. 2012 R2 pre-dates Windows as a Service, so the ability to service Windows with feature updates via WSUS had to be patched in. (A few KBs through Windows Update, plus this IIS MIME type. And in some cases, a post-install servicing command) Server 2016 and newer natively support .esd decryption/delivery for servicing Windows with feature updates.

  • Great !!!!!
    "Feature Update to Windows 10, Version 1709, en-us" downloading started immediately after above fix !
    A Big Thanks to Stephen !! : )

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Published by
Stephen Wagner
7 years ago

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