This will end up raising red flags when the SSL connection is establishing so the Microsoft server will terminate it.

Invalid Proxy Settings – There is a lot of hijacking malware capable of altering the Connection settings.

Some firewalls will save security settings that will make trick Windows Update into determining that SSL connection is not secure.

3rd-party Firewall Blocking SSL Connection – While WU is comfortable working through Windows Firewall, not the same can be said with external firewalls.

If incorrect time and date are not to blame for the issue, you’are likely missing a trusted authority certificate.

Missing Root Certificate Update – If the SSL certificate used to connect to the Microsoft server is not trusted, the connection will fail.

All SSL connections require a valid date and time before determining that a connection is secure.

Incorrect Time and Date– If the time and date on your computer do not match the ones on the Microsoft Update server, the secure SSL connection will be terminated.There are four main causes that will lead to the 80072F8F: Your computer’s date and time appear to be out of sync with an update certificate. The error is not exclusive to a certain Windows version and is usually associated with the following error message :

The error message 80072F8F will typically be encountered in the error log after Windows fails to perform an update. When one or more errors are found in the SSL certificate used by the server, the user will be presented with the 80072F8F error. It indicates that there’s something wrong with the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) connection between WU and the Microsoft Server. The code 80072F8F is a generic error thrown by Windows Update (WU).

Windows 7 80072efe