Fixing my Windows Insider (beta) update, espescially with Install error - 0x80072f8f.

Hello everyone! if you are coming to this article, i bet you are having a problem related to your Windows update. In my case, I was getting the error Install error - 0x80072f8f which would stop after 99% of the installation process.

I’m not sure what is causing this problem (i can’t reproduce the logs), perhaps the file was corrupted during the download process or something is missing on my Windows.

At that time, my Windows was on 22631.2338 (beta) in September. I have done several times to clear every Windows Update cache and data by performing the commands below.

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net stop wuauserv
net stop cryptSvc
net stop bits
net stop msiserver
net stop appidsvc
ren C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old
ren C:\Windows\System32\catroot2 catroot2.old
regsvr32.exe /s atl.dll
regsvr32.exe /s urlmon.dll
regsvr32.exe /s mshtml.dll
netsh winsock reset
netsh winsock reset proxy
rundll32.exe pnpclean.dll,RunDLL_PnpClean /DRIVERS /MAXCLEAN
dism /Online /Cleanup-image /ScanHealth
dism /Online /Cleanup-image /CheckHealth
dism /Online /Cleanup-image /RestoreHealth
dism /Online /Cleanup-image /StartComponentCleanup
Sfc /ScanNow
net start wuauserv
net start cryptSvc
net start bits
net start msiserver
net start appidsvc

Those commands did not solve my problem. 0x80072f8f is still exist in every beta release. I assumed that the downloaded Windows Update file was actually fine and not corrupted, but something was blocking it when Windows Update tried to install the file onto my Windows.

So, the only way is to do an in-place upgrade. I choose this method because I wanted to fix it without losing my apps and personal data. Windows ISO is also required to be able to perform in-place upgrade. Since Windows does not release an ISO for Windows Insider program, i downloaded it using UUP Dump which is easy to use for me. By doing in-place upgrade it has solved my problem, now there are no issues with my Windows Updates.

Read this article for the instructions:

• Repair Install Windows 11 with an In-place Upgrade.
• How to use UUP dump to create an updated Windows ISO for any channel.