Cloned VM's and WSUS

 When you clone Windows machines, you may run into the issue where WSUS updates are not working. Even though sysprep has been run, the wsus authorization appears to not have been reset with it. I use this script below to reset the Windows Update to a fresh state.

net stop wuauserv
del c:\windows\WindowsUpdate.log
REG DELETE "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate" /v AccountDomainSid /f
REG DELETE "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate" /v PingID /f
REG DELETE "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate" /v SusClientId /f
REG DELETE "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update" /v LastWaitTimeout /f
REG DELETE "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update" /v DetectionStartTime /f
REG DELETE "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update" /v NextDetectionTime /f
REG DELETE "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update" /v AUState /f
net start wuauserv
wuauclt /resetauthorization /detectnow
pause

Paste this into a batchfile, run it, and wait a short while, and then the updates should start again. Note that this deletes the WindowsUpdate.log file. If you want to do troubleshooting of previous WSUS errors, either delete that line, or copy the file to a safe place. I delete it so I get a fresh view of what is happening with the Windows Updates.