Check for updates stuck at the "Attempting to initiate Windows Update

[doug]

It sounds like something in your environment has changed. Access Denied generally means that there is a permissions issue. Please start by going through the troubleshooting guide step by step to help pinpoint where the issue is.

[thenew3]

We got around the permission issue. It was the anti malware blocking PSexec.exe We installed the latest psexec.exe (v2.2) and that issue went away.

Now we are faced with the issue of update check never completing with

Attempting to initiate Windows Update (Action: Search for updates: “SoftwareAndDrivers” | Server selection: Microsoft Update)…XX:XX:XX

Using the latest batchpatch released today 2017.11.10.12.1 and psexec v2.2

[doug]

It might be caused by your anti malware software blocking psexesvc.exe on the target computers. Try setting a custom name for this process under ‘Tools > Settings > Remote Execution > Use PsExec -r switch to specify remove service name’ You could use something like BatchPatchExeSvc.exe. This might be enough to bypass the anti malware app. If not then you could try whitelisting the exe files in the anti malware app.

See also this posting, which explains the most common reason for getting stuck on “Attempting to initiate Windows Update”: https://batchpatch.com/batchpatch-stuck-attempting-to-initiate-windows-update

[Author]

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