The directory C:\Windows does not appear to be a valid ...

The directory C:\Windows does not appear to be a valid ...

Postby carrdav » 22.03.2019, 15:49

Sharing an issue and a fix. We had the following error while patching with WSUSOU on 2012R2:

Error: 3

The directory C:\Windows does not appear to be a valid Windows directory.
Ensure that the /WinDir option that is specified is valid. For more information,
refer to the help by running DISM.exe /WinDir /?.

This error ended up being the result of having an extra folder in C:\Windows\servicing\Version\

In our case we had created the following folders and dummy zero byte files on all 2016 servers to get around a system state Netbackup issue:

C:\Windows\servicing\Version\10.0.14393.0\amd64_installed
C:\Windows\servicing\Version\10.0.14393.0\x86_installed

and in the course of testing I had tested on a 2012R2 test server with this folder and WSUS Offlne Updater stopped working and threw the "The directory C:\Windows does not appear to be a valid Windows directory." error.

The fix is to check that “C:\Windows\servicing\Version “ folder above and remove the \10.0.14393.0 (you need to take ownership first)

Apparently the folder name in there has to agree with this registry key(it did not in my case):
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Component Based Servicing\Version

And if there is an extra folder in there not mentioned in the key you get that error above. Taking ownership and deleting the folder not mentioned in the Reg Key allowed WSUSOU to work.

Oops..
carrdav
 
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Joined: 22.03.2019, 15:41

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