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How to Fix Windows 10 Error Code 0x80072F8F

Error Code 0x80072F8F - What is it?

Error Code 0x80072F8F manifests in one main way. It is known to appear as early as Windows 7, and mainly deals with an error that occurs in the update process, or when the computer is trying to connect to the online activation service. It can appear when the activation fails to verify the product key. The error code will present itself when the system realizes that the PC's date and time are incorrect. Error Code 0x80072F8F will also appear if the computer has determined that the time zone settings on the computer are not accurate.

When Windows is going through the installation process and is verifying all of the information associated with the computer, Error Code 0x80072F8F will arise, indicating that the information in the computer's settings is not valid. Correct times and dates are necessary when using serial validation keys to install Windows. When these settings are outside of the tolerated window, the problem will arise.

Error Causes

There is only one main symptom to look out for, and it will manifest during a Windows installation. In the midst of the installation, the computer will not be able to proceed with the installation if Error Code 0x80072F8F has popped up. Because the information cannot be verified, Windows will not be able to continue the installation process when the time settings are not accurate. This interrupts the process, causing the need to edit the settings, restart the computer, and try again. It is imperative to be sure that the date and time on the computer are inside of the tolerated window for the serial key.

  • This error code will not give any information on how to correct it.
  • Windows Error 0x80072F8F is displayed on the screen.
  • The error code appears when typing the Windows serial key and proceeding.

Further Information and Manual Repair

When experiencing Error Code 0x80072F8F, the date and time need to be corrected in the computer settings menu, and then verify the correct time zone settings.  There are a few different ways to edit the time and date settings, and one may need to even edit the time zone settings. After this, restarting the computer may be needed. When booting into Windows, the validation code should be activated within 30 days of obtaining the serial number.

  • Method One

Check the time and date settings.

  1. Open the Start menu.
  2. Select Settings, then Time and Language, then Date and Time.
  3. Check and make sure that the PC is operating at the correct time and date.
  • Method Two

Ensure that the computer is connected to the internet.

  1. Enter “network troubleshooter” into the search box located on the taskbar.
  2. Select “Identify and Repair Network Problems”.
  3. Follow the instructions that are given on-screen. This will fix any problems that the network is experiencing.
  • Method Three

Review the timezone.

  1. Open the Start menu.
  2. Select Settings, then Time and Language, then Date and Time.
  3. Check to make sure that the correct timezone is selected from the drop-down menu.
  • Method Four

Reboot the PC and check if that fixes the problem. This may help in the event that the network troubleshooter does not detect a problem.

After completing these steps to edit the time, date, and time zone settings, it may be necessary to restart the computer. This is to ensure that the computer will save and recognize the new settings. After restarting, continue the process as intended and enter the product key. The computer will now be able to verify the product key since the time and date will be recognizable. The Windows installation should proceed as normal and complete successfully when the time, date, and time zone are inside of the parameters for the Windows product key.

In short, if it is not, the computer will not be able to recognize the product key, thus will not be able to install the Windows product. Generally, the fix is quite simple and does not take much time at all, but it is very important.

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Option 2 – Disable the Connected User Experience & Telemetry Service via Registry Editor

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Performance Troubleshooter:

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  • Type “exe /id PerformanceDiagnostic” in the field and hit Enter to open the Performance troubleshooter.
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Solution

Restoro box imageError Causes

D3dx9_32.dll error may occur due to multiple causes. These include:
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Further Information and Manual Repair

To avoid inconvenience, it is advisable to fix the error right away. To resolve it you don’t need to be a technical whiz or hire a technician. Luckily, the D3dx9_32.dll file error is quite easy to fix. Here are some of the best and effective DIY methods that you can try to remove the error:

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Since D3dx9_32.dll error is related to DirectX software, it is advisable to make sure that you have the latest version of this software installed on your PC. To install the updated version, simply go to Microsoft’s official website, download the software from there and install it on your PC. To activate changes, restart your computer.

Method 2 - Uninstall and then Re-install Gaming Application

If the error still persists, then the reason for it could be the gaming application. Sometimes D3dx9_32.dll error may also occur due to poor program installation. Therefore, in this case it is recommended that you first uninstall the program by going to the Add/Remove program option. And once the program is uninstalled, try re-installing it on your PC. Hopefully, it will remove the error.

Method 3 - Restore the Damaged/Corrupt D3dx9_32.dll File

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Option 1 – Try disabling Fast Startup

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Option 2 – You need to stop the Task Scheduler from waking up your computer

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  • Open the Power Options and then click on “Change Plan Settings”.
  • After that, make sure to choose the correct power plan and then select the “Change advanced power settings” option.
  • Next, look for the Sleep tree and expand it to view the “Allow Wake Timers” option and then disable it. Disabling this option will make sure that none of the program that could wake your PC up when it’s either on shutdown or sleep mode. However, this only applies to laptops.

Option 3 – Try to disable Automatic Restart

There are instances when the computer crashes and the system restarts itself. This is actually by design – when your computer has been left on standby, the computer will restart and if the program repeats, it will keep on waking your PC up.
  • In the Search bar, type in “system”.
  • Once it appears from the search results, click on it.
  • Next, select Advanced system settings on the left side and then go to the Advanced tab.
  • From there, click on Settings under Startup and Recovery.
  • Then unmark “Automatically Restart” and click on OK.

Option 4 – Adjust the Power Management option of both the Keyboard and Mouse

As you know, two of the culprits in waking your PC up are the keyboard and the mouse. If they’re slightly moved or hit, your PC turns on. To prevent these two from waking your computer up, you need to make some adjustments to their power management option since they have one. You can disable this option to ensure that they won’t wake your PC up unless you really want it to.
  • Tap the Win + X keys and then tap M to open the Device Manager and list all the hardware on your computer. From there, select your keyboard or mouse.
  • Next, right-click and then go to Properties and go to the Power Management tab.
  • In this tab, uncheck the “Allow this device to wake the computer” box.
Note: Aside from the keyboard and mouse, if you are also using any gaming rig to play games on your computer, then you might have to disable their power options as well as they could also wake your computer. Just make sure that either the keyboard or the mouse has the ability to wake your computer up at the very least as it can be quite inconvenient to tap the Power button every time you want to turn on your computer.

Option 5 – Modify Wake On Lan

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  • Tap the Win + x keys then hit M to open the Device Manager and then under the Network adapters, look for the one that was listed above. Take note that you must not change anything with the ones that are listed as Miniport.
  • Next, right-click and select Properties and then go to Power management and from there, uncheck the “Allow this device to wake up the computer” option. This will ensure that no PC on the network can ever wake your computer up.

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“There were some problems installing updates, but we’ll try again later. If you keep seeing this and want to search the web or contact support for information, this may help: (0x80096004).”
To fix Windows Update error 0x80096004, you can check out the options provided below.

Option 1 – Delete the contents in the Software Distribution folder and Catroot2 folder

  • Open the WinX Menu.
  • From there, open Command Prompt as admin.
  • Then type in the following command – don’t forget to hit Enter right after typing each one of them.
net stop wuauserv net start cryptSvc net start bits net start msiserver
  • After entering these commands, it will stop the Windows Update Service, Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS), Cryptographic, and the MSI Installer
  • Next, go to the C:/Windows/SoftwareDistribution folder and get rid of all the folders and files thereby tapping the Ctrl + A keys to select them all and then click on Delete. Note that if the files are in use, you won’t be able to delete them.
After resetting the SoftwareDistribution folder, you need to reset the Catroot2 folder to restart the services you just stopped. To do that, follow these steps:
  • Type each one of the following commands.
net start wuauserv net start cryptSvc net start bits net start msiserver
  • After that, exit Command Prompt and restart your computer, and then try to run Windows Update once more.

Option 2 – Run the Windows Update Troubleshooter

Running the built-in Windows Update troubleshooter is one of the things you can first check out as it is known to automatically resolve any Windows Update errors like error code 0x80096004. To run it, Refer to these steps:
  • Tap the Win + I keys to open Settings.
  • From there, click Update and Security and go to the Troubleshoot section.
  • Next, select Windows Update and click the “Run the troubleshooter” button and wait until it’s finished, and then try to run Windows Update again.

Option 3 – Try to temporarily disable anti-virus and Windows Defender Firewall

As mentioned, the error could be due to the antivirus program or the Windows Defender Firewall installed on your computer. Thus, disabling them or any security software installed in your computer is always a good idea you can try when you’re not able to access the shared drive on your computer. There are times when you encounter problems like Error Code 0x80096004 due to interference of antivirus or security programs. Thus, you have to disable both your antivirus program and Windows Defender Firewall for the meantime and check if it fixes the error or not.

Option 4 – Try to replace the DLL file with a trusted source

You can also try to replace the crypt32.dll file as it could help in fixing the Windows Update error. Just make sure that you get one from a trusted source.
  • First, you need to get the new DLL file from another computer with preferably the same file version number.
  • After that, you need to boot your PC into Safe Mode and navigate to the paths listed below and then replace the file using a USB drive or other external storage devices.
    • x86: This PC > C:/Windows/System32
    • x64: This PC > C:/Windows/SysWOW64
  • Next, type “cmd” in the Cortana search box and right-click on Command Prompt, and select “Run as administrator” to open it with administrator privileges.
  • Now type the “regsvr32 crypt32.dll” command and hit Enter.
  • Restart your PC and check if the error is now fixed.

Option 5 – Try downloading and installing the Windows Updates manually

Error Code 0x80096004 might be due to a Windows Update that has failed. So if it is not a feature update and only a cumulative update, you can download the Windows Update and install it manually. But first, you need to find out which update has failed, and to do so, refer to the following steps:
  • Go to Settings and from there go to Update and Security > View Update History.
  • Next, check which particular update has failed. Note that Updates that have failed to install will be displayed under the Status column which has a label of “Failed”.
  • After that, go to the Microsoft Download Center and look for that update using its KB number and once you find it, download and then install it manually.
Note: You can also use the Microsoft Update Catalog, a service from Microsoft that provides a list of software updates that can be distributed over a corporate network. With the help of this service, it can be easier for you to find Microsoft software updates, drivers as well as fixes.

Option 6– Run System File Checker or SFC scan

System File Checker or SFC is a built-in command utility that helps in restoring corrupted files as well as missing files. It replaces bad and corrupted system files to good system files. To run the SFC command, follow the steps given below.
  • Tap Win + R to launch Run.
  • Type in cmd in the field and tap Enter.
  • After opening Command Prompt, type in sfc /scannow
The command will start a system scan which will take a few whiles before it finishes. Once it’s done, you could get the following results:
  1. Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
  2. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them.
  3. Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files but was unable to fix some of them.
 Reboot your PC.

Option 7 – Try to run the Windows Update Service in a Clean Boot State

There are some instances that some conflicting programs installed in your computer might be the one that’s causing Windows Update error. To identify which program is causing the problem, you need to put your computer in a Clean Boot State. To do so, follow the steps below.
  • Log onto your PC as an administrator.
  • Type in MSConfig in the Start Search to open the System Configuration utility.
  • From there, go to the General tab and click “Selective startup”.
  • Clear the “Load Startup items” check box and make sure that the “Load System Services” and “Use Original boot configuration” options are checked.
  • Next, click the Services tab and select the “Hide All Microsoft Services” check box.
  • Click Disable all.
  • Click on Apply/OK and restart your PC. (This will put your PC into a Clean Boot State. And configure Windows to use the usual startup, just simply undo the changes.)
  • Now try to run the Windows Update Service again and see if Windows Update error 0x80096004 is now gone.
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Fix File Explorer stuck on Working on it…
One of the most useful utilities on a Windows 10 computer is the Windows File Explorer. It is undeniably one of the File Managers out there full of features on all the platforms. However, it is not without its issues and one of the most common ones most users encounter is when you are trying to open a folder or a location on File Explorer and it displays a message saying, “Working on it…” as it tries to load the content of that location or folder. This kind of issue mainly occurs to computers that run on an HDD although that doesn’t mean that it can’t happen to other computers that run an SDD. And so if the File Explorer on your Windows 10 computer keeps getting stuck on the “Working on it…” message along with a green animation bar moving very slowly while loading the contents of the folder, then it’s best if you follow the options given below to resolve this problem.

Option 1 – Try deleting the contents of the Automatic Destinations folder

  • Tap the Win + R keys on your keyboard to open the Run utility.
  • And then type “%AppData%MicrosoftWindowsRecentAutomaticDestinations” and hit Enter to open this location.
  • From there, select all the files and tap the Shift + Delete key combination.
  • After that, you will get a prompt that will ask you if you want to delete all the files permanently, just click on Yes. This will delete all the Quick Access cache.
  • Now check if you can now open a folder or a location without the “Working on it…” message.

Option 2 – Try to rebuild the Search Index

  • First, open the Indexing Options using the Search bar.
  • Next, click on the appropriate listing, e.g. Users folder.
  • After that, click on the Advanced button. This will open a mini-sized window and from there, go to the Index Settings tab.
  • Then click on the “Rebuild” option under the Troubleshooting section.
  • Now click on OK after the rebuilding is completed. This should rebuild the search index for all the files and thus, fix the File Explorer stuck on the “Working on it…” message.

Option 3 – Try to optimize the folder for General Items

You might also want to try optimizing the folder for General Items as it can help the File Explorer to load the contents faster.
  • Just right click on the folder that takes time to load the contents in it and is showing the “Working on it…” message.
  • After that, click on Properties to open the Properties mini window.
  • From there, go to the Customize tab and click on the drop-down menu to “Optimize this folder for” under the “What kind of folder do you want?” section and then select General Items.
  • Then check the checkbox with a label that says, “Also apply this template to all subfolders” and click on the OK button to save the changes.
  • Restart File Explorer and check if the problem is now fixed or not.

Option 4 – Try performing a System Restore

Running System Restore can also help you resolve whatever issue that’s causing the “Working on it…” message. You can do this option either by booting into Safe Mode or in System Restore. If you are already in the Advanced Startup Options, just directly select System Restore and proceed with the next steps. And if you have just booted your PC into Safe Mode, refer to the steps below.
  • Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
  • After that, type in “sysdm.cpl” in the field and tap Enter.
  • Next, go to the System Protection tab then click the System Restore button. This will open a new window where you have to select your preferred System Restore point.
  • After that, follow the on-screen instructions to finish the process and then restart your computer and check if the problem is fixed or not.
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Cortana is Not Connecting to the Internet
Recently, a number of Windows 10 users reported that they were not able to use Cortana properly because it wasn’t able to connect to the internet. According to these users, Cortana won’t connect to the internet even when their internet connection is stable. According to security experts, this issue is confirmed to occur only with Microsoft accounts. This problem might have something to do with a proxy server that interferes with Cortana. There were reports that this issue was caused by a proxy that was filtering the network connection which also happens to interfere with Cortana’s ability to adapt search results and queries based on the user’s location. It could also be caused by some glitch in the home network or your Microsoft account information is inconsistent or your Microsoft account has to be verified. Here are some suggestions that could help fix the connection issue in Cortana, just start with the first one and work your way down until you encounter an option that fixes the problem.

Option 1 – Restart or reset your modem or router

The first thing you can try is restarting or resetting your modem or router. All you have to do is unplug the power cable of the modem and then plug it back in after a few seconds. You could also use the reset button of the modem at the back if it is one. But before you press the reset button, keep in mind that it will erase all the connection credentials and it will be set back to its default settings. After rebooting the network, you can restart your computer to force your modem or router to reassign an IP address to your computer.

Option 2 – Restart Cortana

Restarting Cortana can help you resolve the issue.
  • To restart Cortana, open the Task Manager, right-click on Cortana and select the “End process” option.
  • Then go to the File tab and select “Run new task”.
  • After that, type in “cortana.exe” and press Enter to restart the process.

Option 3 – Try to remove Proxy

Removing the Proxy might also help you in fixing the connection issue in Cortana. Here’s how you can do it:
  • Tap the Win + R keys to open the Run dialog box.
  • Then type “inetcpl.cpl” in the field and hit Enter to pull up the Internet Properties.
  • After that, go to the Connections tab and select the LAN settings.
  • From there. Uncheck the “Use a Proxy Server” option for your LAN and then make sure that the “Automatically detect settings” option is checked.
  • Now click the OK and the Apply buttons.
  • Restart your PC.
Note: If you are using a third-party proxy service, you have to disable it.

Option 4 – Open another app that uses a Microsoft account

This might seem like an odd fix, however, a couple of users tried doing this and it worked for them as it allowed Cortana to connect to the internet again. In this option, you just have to launch another app that uses your Microsoft account information in the same way as Cortana, for instance, the Store app. Once you open the app, a prompt should appear along with a dialog box that allows you to update your Microsoft account with the information required. After that, restart your computer and check if Cortana is now able to connect to the internet or not.

Option 5 – Verify your Microsoft account

In some cases, Cortana might not be able to connect to the internet because your Microsoft account is no longer verified. This usually happens when you use a two-step authentication system with your Microsoft account. To verify it, just open Settings and click on Accounts. After that, check if you have a Verify hyperlink under your Microsoft account or not then click on Verify. Afterward, follow the next on-screen prompts to verify your Microsoft account. Once your account is verified, restart your computer.

Option 6 – Reset Cortana settings

  • Open Cortana and go to the Settings section where you’ll see the “Turning off Cortana clears what Cortana knows on this device, but won’t delete anything from the Notebook. After Cortana is off, you can decide what you’d like to do with anything still stored in the cloud” option. Turn this option off.
  • Restart your PC.
  • After your computer boots, launch Cortana again and check.
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