Adding Computers to WSUS 3.0 SP1

Great article from Chaks’ Geekzone Corner

The WSUS Help is very very good and its your best friend! So dont forget him.


Microsoft suggests to use Group Policy for setting up computers and WSUS in clients. So we set our WSUS details in our Group Policy Object (GPO).

1) Create a new GPO
    [Do not edit the default Domain Controller Policy or Default Domain Policy]

2) Edit the newly created GPO
    a) Go to Computer Configuration-->Policies-->Windows Components-->Windows Update
    b) On the Settings tab (right side)
        --> Enable client-side targeting and specify the Computer Group that machines need to be added
        --> Under Specify Intranet Microsoft Update Service location, enable it and give your WSUS
                  address for both intranet update service and intranet statistics server

3) Specify the Security Filtering for this newly created GPO to the specific Computer or Groups or Users you want it to reflect

4) Link this newly created GPO in your Domain and make it Enforced

5) Restart (may or may not be required) the client machine to which you have set this GPO

6) Login to the client machine and now check the registry settings in the client machine

Below you have the location you want to check,


And check its values,

The TargetGroup, WUServer and WUStatusServer should have the values you set in your GPO

So, being said that all are good, now check whether you have set Windows Update to Automatic mode, if not, set it and then Check For Updates. You may be prompted an update to the Windows Update, install it.

Now, go to your server, fire up WSUS Administration Console and go to,
Update Services-->Server-->Computers

Check whether you can actually see the Computer in which you have set up the Intranet Update Service. If you cannot see,wait for sometime, something will appear there, lol (you may have to Refresh it).

If you see your Computer, but then if it tells your that its status is not yet reported, then, run this on the client Computer (on the command prompt),

wuauclt /resetauthorization /detectnow

You should now be able to view your computer in the WSUS Administration Console


And finally here is my status of my Computer,


Copied for archival purposes

October 1, 2008 В· curtisvonlintel В· Comments Closed
Tags: , ,  В· Posted in: Server Setups