Sometimes I like to stump my future self by making a random change along the way that will eventually cause problems. By stump I mean spitting mad. Trolling myself? Perhaps. Anyway I made some bonehead change in my virtual lab at some point that was allowing everything but Windows Update and Activation through on my virtual machines. Every time I ran it I got the error code 0x80072ee2 “Operation Timed Out”. One would think this would be a firewall issue, but even after disabling the firewall it still wouldn’t work. the host could connect some of the time so I thought maybe a network issue but it wasn’t that either. Eventually I found out one of my older VM’s could still connect so I dug into what made it different. After a few hours of testing network settings I finally realized I should check the MAC address. Occasionally dynamic MAC addresses don’t assign uniquely and you get two VMs sharing the same MAC. Even that wasn’t the issue. The only difference in the machine was it was using a legacy network adapter. I’m still not sure why, but switching the problem VMs to legacy network adapters allowed to connect to Windows Update. Keep in mind they could connect to everything else on the internet just fine, and my local network.
So, if you’re running a virtual machine that won’t update and you’re getting the error below, try switching the NIC to legacy in Hyper-V.
0x80072ee2 Windows Update “Operation Timed Out”
How to switch the NIC to legacy in Hyper-V:
*Warning, this will remove your network card settings such as the IP address. Make sure you have this info handy.
1. Shut down the virtual machine
2. Right click on the machine in Hyper-V Manager and go to settings.
3. Click on the existing NIC and click remove.
4. Click apply. After the settings are applied click on Add Hardware and then click on Legacy Network Adapter and add.
5. Connect it to your network, start the VM back up, and apply your TCP/IP settings such as IP address, etc.
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