Windows: December 2023 updates fail with error 0x8007000D

[German]I have got various reader reports about the installation error 0x8007000D in connection with the security updates for Windows that were rolled out on December 12, 2023. The problem is already present with the October 2023 updates, where the error occurred under Windows 10, through the cumulative updates. In the meantime, I have also received reports about Windows Server 2022. I'll summarize all the reports and have also named some causes that I have already come across.

The old case from October 2023

The security update KB5031356 released for Windows 10 22H2 on October 10, 2023 fails for some users with the installation error 0x8007000D. Whether the error 8007000D (ERROR_INVALID_DATA) has occurred and the update installation has failed can be displayed in the Windows Update view under System settings by selecting the Update history entry.

Microsoft has acknowledged the problem on October 13, 2023 in the Windows 10 Health status page in the post The October 2023 security update might fail to install (now sorted under Resolved issues). It states that Microsoft has received reports of a problem where the Windows update KB5031356 could not be installed. Microsoft has fixed this problem in the Windows 10 scenario with the Known Issue Rollback (KIR), i.e. Microsoft rolls back the faulty component via KIR. Details can be found in the support article KB5031356.

In the blog post Windows 10 Update KB5031356 fails with error 0x8007000D, I mentioned  that the problem was still open in managed corporate environments because the group policies required to activate the KIR were missing. However, Microsoft supplied the missing ADMX files and their MSI installers for managed environments a few days later.

New reports in November/December 2023

With the security updates of November 14, 2023 and December 12, 2023, there seems to be the installation error 8007000D (ERROR_INVALID_DATA) again. And this time it doesn't just relate to Windows 10 22H2.

Also occurred in November 2023

For Windows 10, the my German blog post Windows 10 Update KB5031356 scheitert mit Error 0x8007000D contains the comment that the error also occurs with the November 2023 update (see also the following sections). Some users also receive the error code 0x800F0922 when the installation is aborted.

Windows Server 2022 also affected

A user has posted this comment and writes that he now has the installation error 8007000D (ERROR_INVALID_DATA) on several Windows Server 2022 machines. All machines are provided with Dell Rok installation images (see), and I interpret the comment to mean that the error has been going on since the previous patchdays, but is still there with the December 2023 update.

The user has tried a repair using sfc and dism and also reset Windows Update, but all to no avail. What remains is to attempt a repair installation via Inplace Upgrade, but this is not a good choice.

Windows 10 22H2 affected again

Another user has already left this comment in Nov. 2023 and writes that he still has the problem documented by me in the article Windows 10 Update KB5031356 fails with error 0x8007000D. He does not want to perform a repair installation of Windows if he can avoid it.

In the German blog post Windows: Patchday-Nachlese November 2023, other readers have reported being affected by the installation error in question – among others, riedenthied reports error 0x8007000D in this comment.

More reports

Also my German blog post Microsoft Security Update Summary (12. Dezember 2023 received two comments reporting the install error 0x8007000d. In this comment no Windows version is named. However, since the text also refers to an upgrade to Windows 11, I conclude that Windows 10 22H2 is affected.

The second comment here also doesn't name a Windows version, but I'm guessing Windows 10. In this comment, the person concerned also states that he has tried many things without success. It looks as if there is a fundamental bug in Windows.

What can be done?

Here is a brief overview of measures and causes that I can think of spontaneously for the problem.

Exclude damaged Windows

Error 8007000D stands for ERROR_INVALID_DATA, an indication that either the update package is corrupt, contains invalid references or Windows files are corrupt. To rule out the latter case, I would first run the command :

sfc /scannow

to check and repair the Windows files. If no more damaged files are found there, this at least rules out one cause of the error. Microsoft has now added information in the article The October 2023 security update might fail to install, which can be used to repair the system:

Dism /online /cleanup-image /RestoreHealth

in an administrative command prompt. This would also be a recommendation to rule out a corrupted Windows installation as far as possible. I described the approaches in the article Check and repair Windows system files and component store.

However, feedback shows me that the above approaches and resetting the Windows Update Store do not solve the problem in most cases.

Try to evaluate the cbs.log

My advice would be to evaluate the CBS.log file. Windows creates entries there that are created during the update installation. There may be a clue to the cause there. The file can be found in the path:

%windir%\Logs\CBS\

Copy the CBS.log data to the desktop to rule out access conflicts. The file can then be opened in a text editor and you can search for the error code. I described this approach in the German blog post Windows 8.1 Update: Fehleranalyse per CBS.log. This still applies to Windows 10/11 and Windows Server

Driver installation error

In this Microsoft Answers forum post from December 8, 2023, an administrator describes the Windows Update Error 0x8007000d under Windows Server 2019 Standard (Hyper-V guest). The usual approaches such as resetting the update store, running system file checks and installing the download directly do not help. The affected person then posted an excerpt from the CBS.log file.

2023-12-08 02:02:22, Info CBS INSTALL index: 164, phase: 2, result 13, inf: mshdc.inf
2023-12-08 02:02:22, Info CBS Doqe: Recording result: 0x8007000d, for Inf: mshdc.inf
2023-12-08 02:02:22, Info CBS DriverUpdateInstallUpdates failed [HRESULT = 0x8007000d - ERROR_INVALID_DATA]
2023-12-08 02:02:22, Info CBS Doqe: Failed installing driver updates [HRESULT = 0x8007000d - ERROR_INVALID_DATA]
2023-12-08 02:02:22, Info CBS Perf: Doqe: Install ended.
2023-12-08 02:02:22, Info CBS Failed installing driver updates [HRESULT = 0x8007000d - ERROR_INVALID_DATA]
2023-12-08 02:02:22, Error CBS Shtd: Failed while processing non-critical driver operations queue. [HRESULT = 0x8007000d - ERROR_INVALID_DATA]
2023-12-08 02:02:22, Info CBS Shtd: Rolling back KTM, because drivers failed.

In the sequence above, the rollback occurs because a driver update fails. While writing this blog post, I took a look at the CBS.log file of my Windows 10 V1909 IoT Enterprise LTSC. There are also entries of this type there, like:

DriverUpdateInstallUpdates failed [HRESULT = 0x80070bc2 - ERROR_SUCCESS_REBOOT_REQUIRED]

But the installation went through successfully. A necessary reboot was probably the cause. It is recommended to restart affected machines perhaps once or twice to rule out such errors.

German blog reader Markus left this comment, explaining, what to do, if a driver update install error is reported in cbs.log. He posted two links to the sysnative forum, where this approach is also discussed.

The old LAPS client can interfere

As a precaution, I would like to refer you to the German comment by ypilei, who has found a possible cause. The reader wrote that he was able to fix the installation error on the Windows 10 clients by uninstalling the old LAPS legacy client in addition to the KIR. Just deactivating this client via GPO/Registry is not enough, he said. After that, the updates went through without any problems.

In the reader's environment, ~90% of the clients were affected, so it was reasonable to suspect that something on the computers must be causing this. In addition to the LAPS client, other outdated software could be blocking the update installation – which brings us back to the analysis of the cbs.log.

A note at this point: Microsoft has integrated its Local Administrator Password Solution (LAPS) directly into the Windows operating system with the April 2023 Patchday (April 11, 2023). This applies to the following Windows versions.

• Windows 11 Pro, EDU and Enterprise
• Windows 10 Pro, EDU and Enterprise
• Windows Server 2022 and Windows Server Core 2022
• Windows Server 2019

Regarding the problem with the LAPS client, I then published the blog post Windows LAPS integration via April 2023 update causes trouble for administrators. And there is the follow-up post Windows Server: Update your Active Directory schema for the current Windows LAPS version with further hints.

Uninstalled Edge may be the cause

I also pointed out in the blog post Windows: November 2023 patchday issues that an uninstalled Edge browser could be the cause of the installation error (0x800f0922 in this case). This was then confirmed as the cause in this comment.