Manually Installing a Monthly Windows Update on Windows Server

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Overview

In some cases, Windows Updates may fail to install via Windows Update or SCCM Software Center. This document provides a step-by-step guide to manually installing a monthly cumulative update (CU) by extracting and installing the relevant CAB files using DISM (Deployment Image Servicing and Management Tool).

Prerequisites

• Administrator access to the Windows Server machine.
• Internet access to download the update package.
• DISM is included in Windows and does not require installation.

Step 1: Download the Windows Update Package

1. Visit the Microsoft Update Catalog:
   https://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Home.aspx
2. Search for the monthly cumulative update (CU) for whichever month you are trying to install by entering the relevant KB number.
3. Choose the correct version for Windows Server 2022 (or your target OS).
4. Click Download and save the MSU file to a location such as C:\Updates\

Step 2: Extract CAB Files from the MSU Package

To extract the contents of the MSU file and retrieve the necessary CAB files:

1. Open Command Prompt as an administrator.
2. Run the following command:

expand C:\Updates\update.msu -F:* C:\Updates\Extracted

3. Replace update.msu with the actual name of your MSU file.
4. This will extract the CAB files into the C:\Updates\Extracted folder and you should have a list of files similar to this, dependant on OS and update required:

Step 3: Install the Servicing Stack Update (SSU)

Before installing the CU update, you must install the SSU (Servicing Stack Update) first.

1. Identify the SSU CAB file in the extracted folder (it is usually named something like SSU-x64.cab).
2. Run the following DISM command to install the SSU:

dism /online /add-package /packagepath:C:\Updates\Extracted\SSU-x64.cab

3. Ensure the path matches the location of the extracted SSU CAB file.
4. You should see a progress bar appear, wait for the installation to complete and then move onto the next step.

Step 4: Install the Cumulative Update (CU)

Once the SSU is installed, proceed with installing the CU update.

1. Locate the CU CAB file (typically named something like Windows10.0-KBxxxxxxx-x64.cab).
2. Use DISM to install the CU update:

dism /online /add-package /packagepath:C:\Updates\Extracted\Windows10.0-KBxxxxxxx-x64.cab

3. Replace Windows10.0-KBxxxxxxx-x64.cab with the actual CAB file name.
4. This can take some time to complete depending on the size of the update. You should see another progress bar giving you the status:

Step 5: Restart the Server

After successful installation, restart the server to complete the update process:

shutdown /r /t 0

Alternatively, you can restart through the Windows UI.

Conclusion

By manually extracting and installing the CAB files, you can resolve update installation failures in SCCM Software Center or through Windows Update itself and ensure the latest patches are applied.