Windows 8 general availability hits Friday. While you’re probably hoping that it will still be a little while before Microsoft’s newest operating system lands in your organization, it’s better to be prepared than caught unaware. In addition, Microsoft will probably have a few updates inline quickly to resolve any bugs that crop up. In fact, amongst other updates, there is a Flash for Internet Explorer 10 update and the mini-service pack “Windows 8 Client and Windows Server 2012 General Availability Cumulative Update” ready to be installed.
To save some bandwidth and ensure your computers are getting the latest Windows updates, you will want to update your Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) to be able to cache Windows 8 and Server 2012 updates. If you are running WSUS 3.0 SP2, there’s an update to install. Of course, you could also just update your WSUS server to run off of Server 2012 and that should have the update needed to deliver updates to Windows 8 RTM.
Announced in early September from the SUS Blog, KB2734608 is available for install on WSUS 3.0 SP2 instances. If you don’t install the update and a Windows 8 or Server 2012 computer tries to check for updates against your WSUS, the client computer will receive a 800B0001 error. They can switch to check online or you can download and install KB 2734608. Note the update download differs for 32-bit and 64-bit servers.
With that installed, you can hop into your WSUS configuration and go to the options where you can choose which products to synchronize updates for. Windows 8, Server 2012 and a few other products will be new additions to the list. Check the box for what you want and at your next synchronization the updates will be downloaded.
You will need to install the update and resynchronize for each WSUS server in your organization.
“This update lets servers that are running Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) 3.0 SP2 provide updates to computers that are running Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012.” It also resolves issues with KB2720211.