Reinstalling WSUS

Mr. Sonnie Ardhianto
3 min readJul 6, 2022

Background
This article was written on 06-Jul-2022.
Environment:
- Windows Server 2012 R2
- WSUS uses WID
There are various reasons why we want to uninstall and reinstall WSUS.
Yet it appears, uninstalling WSUS does not fully remove all the components.
So when we reinstall WSUS, it still refers to earlier information.
I do not have reference, but it seems WSUS history is still saved in WID.
So WID need to be removed along with WSUS

Prerequisites
WID is removed along with WSUS

Windows Internal Database Features removed

To ensure that WID is fully removed, you need to delete the folder C:\Windows\WID

Reinstalling WID
Since WID is used for WSUS, then first we have to reinstall WID
* do not install WSUS yet

Install WID

After successful install, check that WID service has started with the standard credential

WID service is running

Reinstalling WSUS
After WID is confirmed running, then we can reinstall WSUS

Reinstalling WSUS

Configure WSUS after installation is successful

Configuring WSUS

You can wait on this screen until WSUS configuration is completed

WSUS configuration completed

Or we can see task status in server manager

Verify that WSU-Service is running

WSUS Service is running

Customize your WSUS

Connect to your WSUS server
Follow the wizard

Check that connection to Microsoft upstream server can be established

Connection to Microsoft upstream server established
Set your sync schedule so not to disturb work hours
Do not begin initial sync as it will consume bandwidth during work hours
More configuration to follow

You may continue on your own from this step forward.

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