Windows Server Update Services: Troubleshoot the Tools folder is missing

Hi everyone. Hope you guys did enjoy your weekend. I would like to bring to you on troubleshooting some missing folders or its contents in Windows Server Update Services (WSUS).

Usually, you would face such situation is when you are in the progress of reinstall the WSUS, and you notice that the “Tools” folder is missing. This tools folder you would find it at C:\Program Files\UpdateServices. What’s inside that folder is the WSUS execution file, wsusutil.exe. Without this file you can run any WSUS services.

There might be more problems that you would face during reinstalling of WSUS. Above is only one of the problem that you may face.

One of the symptoms to know whether the Tools folder is missing is when you tried to run the Post-Install of the WSUS, you will end up with error, unable to proceed the Post-Install.

Solution

  1. On the WSUS server > Launch Command Prompt as Administrator
  2. Type the following command fsc /scannow
  3. This command is used to scan the System Files and recover the missing files
  4. Then run a reboot on the server
  5. Check back the folder existence, it should be recovered

References:
1. https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/509b5daf-6246-4f14-9ebd-c88c8967dd34/wsus-2012-tools-directory-missing