SOLVED: Window 10 1607 Not Applying GPO’s For Windows Update

This frustrating problem took me nearly 3 weeks to work out with the good staff at Microsoft Partner Support.  As you can see in the screen shot, Windows 10 1607 (aka Anniversary) does not display SOME SETTINGS ARE MANAGED BY YOUR ORGANIZATION on Windows Update or Windows Update > Advanced Settings.

Your WSUS server shows that it is talking to the 1607 clients and the 1607 clients’ registry verifies that the GPO pointing to your WSUS server is in place.  However, the Windows Update log on your Windows 10 1607 client PC shows it cannot talk to the WSUS server:

(If you want to read your Windows 10 Windows Update Log, we have the process detailed HERE.)

1600-12-31 17:00:00.0000000 316   7924  Unknown( 14): GUID=90536-539-342-79b-cf9a423e (No Format Information found).
2016-10-06 08:23:43.5886888 316   7924  WebServices     Auto proxy settings for this web service call.
2016-10-06 08:24:02.5688252 316   7924  WebServices     WS error: There was an error communicating with the endpoint at ‘http://vm-ms:8530/ReportingWebService/ReportingWebService.asmx’.
2016-10-06 08:24:02.5688897 316   7924  WebServices     WS error: The operation timed out
2016-10-06 08:24:02.5688930 316   7924  WebServices     Web service call failed with hr = 8024401c.
2016-10-06 08:24:02.5688942 316   7924  WebServices     Current service auth scheme=0.

and there is lots of talk from Microsoft on problems with WSUS patch KB3148812 that cause Windows 10 to not be able to talk to WSUS.  Then there was WSUS patch KB3176936 which was supposed to fix this but still requires a pile of manual configuration.

The solution is… well.. wait for Microsoft to develop a patch to correct this.  After weeks of sending logs and trying different configuration, I received the following message from MS Partner Support indicating that Win10 1607 machines ARE talking to WSUS regardless of what the log shows:

…We’ve confirmed this is an issue with version 1607 (regardless of edition) as our Windows 10 1067 machines has the same behavior when Windows Update related group policy settings are in place. However, Windows Update is actually working as expected even though the GUI doesn’t reflect it. We’ll deliver this information to the product group. Hopefully, it’ll be fixed in later update…