Windows – Administering Server 2012 with RSAT on Windows 7

I've had success with Sysinternals Process Explorer. With this, you can search to find what process(es) have a file open, and you can use it to close the handle(s) if you want. Of course, it is safer to close the whole process. Exercise caution and judgement.

To find a specific file, use the menu option Find->Find Handle or DLL... Type in part of the path to the file. The list of processes will appear below.

If you prefer command line, Sysinternals suite includes command line tool Handle, that lists open handles.

Examples

• c:\Program Files\SysinternalsSuite>handle.exe |findstr /i "e:\" (finds all files opened from drive e:\"
• c:\Program Files\SysinternalsSuite>handle.exe |findstr /i "file-or-path-in-question"

This behavior can also be caused by a system administrator who configures the computer to use Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) instead of the Microsoft Windows Update server for servicing.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2734782

This worked for me. Windows has to download the 3.5 installation files, but the server is configured not to use Windows Update (common for managed servers), but WSUS. The above article describes how to fix this. In a nutshell:

1. Start the Local Group Policy Editor or Group Policy Management Console (WIN+R and type gpedit.msc).
2. Expand Computer Configuration, expand Administrative Templates, and then select System.
3. Open the Specify settings for optional component installation and component repair Group Policy setting, and then select Enabled.

4. Select the Contact Windows Update directly to download repair content instead of Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) checkbox.

5. Make sure Windows Updates Service is set to Manual or Automatic to apply this fix. Our default images are set to disabled, and the issue continued until that seemingly obvious change was made.