Windows 8.1 KMS problems

[linkazoid]

Thanks @Steve21 for helping to solve this issue. I'll post the full details of what I had to do in case anyone else needs this in future. This is well documented over the internet but most seem to update to 2012R2 to solve it.

 

• Fully Patch Server 2012 and restart.
  
• Ensure that the following Services are started and running. Software Protection, Windows Update and Background Intelligent Transfer Service.
  
• Download the correct patch from Update adds support for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012 R2 clients to Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8, and Windows Server 2012 KMS hosts
  

 

As I had previously attempted to install the update I mentioned that it was failing at 67% and rolled back the update after 2 restarts. Upon checking the WindowsUpdate.log file in C:\Windows\ it was failing with the following error

"Installation Failure: Windows failed to install the following update with error 0x800F0920: Update for Windows (KB2885698)."

 

The timeout for the Trusted Installer service needs to be changed as the update takes longer than the default 15 minutes on restart that the service allows. It took around 20 minutes on my VM.

I found the following information from here - https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/ca1f547f-f8bd-4d3b-b80c-2f1bbacc4614/windows-server-2012r2-kms?forum=winserver8gen

 

1. Open registry by run regedit.exe.

2. Navigate to

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\TrustedInstaller\

right click it and export it for a backup.

3. Set this registry value: BlockTimeIncrement to “2a30” (3 hours timeout)

It should be “384” right now.

4. You may receive error when you set this value, please right click the “TrustedInstaller” key and set the permission to “Full Control” to users.

5. After that, try to install the update again, this time should work.

 

You can revert this change after the update has correctly applied.

 

I hope this collection of information in one post will help someone else and save them the stress that this was causing me

 

Michael

Edited January 9, 2015 by linkazoid