Odd KB4528760 Error 0X80073712 Gets Easy Fix
Yesterday was Patch Tuesday, so I had updates arrive for a slew of PCs running 1909 (6 in all). One of them failed to install for KB4528760: the aging Lenovo T520 laptop. “Uh oh,” I thought, “does this mean full-blown WU troubleshooting is needed?” Not really. It turns out the error code means “a file needed by Windows Update is damaged or missing.” Microsoft Answers lays it out, and presents a repair strategy for 0x80073712. It’s based on DISM image repair, and is no big deal. My Update History from that PC tells a kinder, gentler story: the KB4528760 error 0X80073712 gets easy fix.
The red arrow (lower) points to the initial failed attempt; the green arrow (upper) shows it worked on a second try.
[Click image for full-sized view.]
How KB4528760 Error 0X80073712 Gets Easy Fix
The .NET CU (KB4532938) and the month’s MSRT (Malicious Software Removal Tool) installed correctly on the first try, though. So I restarted that PC, then ran WU again. “What the heck,” I mused. “Let’s try it again and see what happens.” To my surprise and delight, KB4528760 installed correctly on a second try. No hiccups, no missing files reported. Another restart completed successfully, too. This sequence of events produced the Update History shown in the preceding screencap.
I can only speculate that some kind of wireless communication glitch occurred while the T520 downloaded KB4528760 itself. Obviously, no other Windows files were damaged or missing, or that error would have persisted. The old saying “If at first you don’t succeed, try again” turned out to be just what the doctor ordered for this temporary gotcha. I only wish all my Windows problems — or perhaps even just all my WU problems — were this easy to fix. Sometimes, you get lucky here in Windows World. This must have been one of those times. FWIW, I’m glad.