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I recently updated my base build (WIM) to Windows 10 1709.

In order to build this WIM using MDT, it can be necessary to prevent Windows 10 from automatically updating Optional Features in the background, as this servicing activity breaks the build from being created (reference: https://deploymentresearch.com/Research/Post/615/Fixing-why-Sysprep-fails-in-Windows-10-due-to-Windows-Store-updates).

At the very end of the base image creation, the above registry edit is reverted, in order to allow the deployed device from carrying out 'its designed' optional feature updates.

However....

Because I am building/deploying Windows 10 set to the en-GB locale (I presume this occurs with other locales also), one of the optional features appears to be "English (GB) optical character recognition". So as soon as the user logs on to the machine for the first time Windows 10 tries to download and install that feature, but it fails, over and over and over and over and over and over...............again, dozens of times a day. Every time this occurs, the OS makes a noise and pops up a message; this is NOT acceptable!

Install failed, over and over and over again.....

The deployed devices have WSUS GPO settings applied to them, and one of those is to prevent devices connecting to Microsoft Update (internet) to automatically download updates (HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\DoNotConnectToWindowsUpdateInternetLocations = 1).

I believe that this registry key is the cause of the devices not being able to download/install English (GB) optical character recognition.

Frankly, I do not care if English (GB) optical character recognition is installed or not, but I must make this stop happening and I must not allow devices to update directly from Microsoft.

1) How do I stop this from occurring? 2) Is there any log anywhere on a Windows 10 machine that reports the automated Optional Feature activity, as I cannot find anything in the Event Log or anywhere else.

PS Paragraph two above, may be completely irrelevant to this post, as like i say, the registry key change is reverted (from a 1 to a 0). But I will keep in in in case.

UPDATE 2018-01-19

So I decided to leave the MDT build VM running after it had finished (and failed): This had the desired effect of A) not being on the domain and receiving the WSUS GPO's and B) Being logged in as the local admin (as opposed to the SYSTEM account) and with internet access it tried to perform the language pack option components forced installation (so the not flipping optional are they Microsoft!!????).

Failed again...

So even without the GPO's the failure still occurrs ruling that out.

Additional info; as you can see in the screenshot an error code is displayed when clicking on the option feature failed installation.

There is actually a patter of this:

Both the two features initially each fail the first time only with the code 0x800F0841 and then all subsequent failures have the exit code 0x800F0954.

Anyone have any good suggestions?

Cheers

MikeC
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  • Check the Windows Updates installation log. This should be in %WINDIR%\SoftwareDistribution\ReportingEvents.log and should give you an error code for why the update fails to install. – RobbieCrash Jan 16 '18 at 14:23
  • @RobbieCrash This log does not give any references in the time period of the failed installation. It apparently has nothing to do with Windows Features installations..... – MikeC Jan 16 '18 at 15:38
  • Not sure if this question should be in SuperUser?........ – MikeC Jan 16 '18 at 15:39
  • Have you tested your deployment with out the wsus prevent Windows update internet location is GPO? – Elliot Huffman Jan 17 '18 at 07:11

2 Answers2

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After researching this on and off for ages, i finally came across a proper fix for this issue!

The problem is applicable to clients that are pointed at a WSUS server and that is where they try to pull content for Optional Features. There is a GPO setting that instructs the machine to pull Optional Feature content from Windows Update directly, rather than try to obtain it from your WSUS:

Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System

"Specify settings for optional component installation and component repair"

enter image description here

You need to enable the option "Download repair content and optional features directly from Windows Update instead of Windows Server Update Services (WSUS)"

enter image description here

This will then allow clients to communicate with WSUS as required, whilst still being able to install these annoying optional components.

Honza Zidek
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MikeC
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    I think you can also tell wsus to download the optional components as well but I'd always recommend pulling it from windows update instead if its feasible. – Jim B Sep 10 '18 at 15:00
  • I've looked into this and have not found which product is required to facilitate this. If I do I'll try to come back and update this. – MikeC Sep 11 '18 at 17:03
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    I did some research. You need the featutes on demand iso from VLSC or MSDN. This contains .cab files for all of the features. You can then apply them online using dism in the task sequence manually. – Jim B Sep 11 '18 at 22:15
  • @MikeC : Can you please specify where to find the options you mentioned? E.g. I do not understand where to find "Computer Configuration\Administrative Templates\System". – Stefan Bollmann Oct 30 '18 at 07:50
  • @StefanBollmann Group policy settings - Run GPEdit.msc – MikeC Dec 01 '18 at 17:19
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I was running Windows 10 Build 1803 on a workstation that had been reset. It would constantly attempt to install optional language packs, but fail with error code 0x800F0594. I finally found a solution after several weeks of searching.

It turns out the fault was likely caused by the computer being connected to a domain with a GPO directing updates to a WSUS server.

Following comments on another forum;

  1. Load Regedit as Admin
  2. Navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU
  3. Change reg key UseWUServer from 1 to 0

enter image description here

  1. Open elevated command prompt and type commands;
  2. net stop wuauserv
  3. net start wuauserv

enter image description here

  1. return to the Region and Language settings screen
  2. click on the language, click options button, click download next to the optional packs that are failing to install.

Here is the result:

enter image description here

Honza Zidek
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Dave
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