Windows 8.1 Won't get updates in audit mode.

Question

I just installed Windows 8.1 in a Hyper-V virtual machine. The release version that was distributed through msdn not the preview. I enter audit mode as soon as I can, so there have been no changes or customization applied to the install prior to entering
audit mode. I start up windows update to search for new updates. The status is displayed as "Checking for updates..." "Most recent check for updates: Never." "Updates were installed: Never." The status never changes from "Checking
for updates...". I have even left it running over night and it still says "Checking for updates...". There is never any error message or failure. Network connectivity is functional. I have attempted an install on a physical machine as well with
the same result. If instead of entering audit mode a proceed through setting up windows and a user account, updates will work just fine. There should be an update to defender as well as an update to ie11.
I considered the possibility of a corrupt download so I compared the sha-1 hash to what is listed on the msdn download page and it does match.
 

Answer 1

Quoted from http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/afc7f693-f742-402f-b513-063989b79c2f/windows-81-enterprise-windows-updates?forum=w8itproinstall.
 Emphasis added.
Thank You for sharing the logs. I was able to reproduce the issue in my virtual environment. To understand more about this behavior, I engaged the Product Group and I have been informed that
this behavior is By Design. WU uses the OOBEComplete() Windows API call to determine whether OOBE is in progress or not, and if so, it will not perform automatic or UI update searches. HRESULT code 0x8024a008 is the WU error code WU_E_AU_OOBE_IN_PROGRESS.
WU automatic and UI updates won’t run while Setup reports that OOBE is still in progress. This is to prevent automatic updates from causing a system reboot during OOBE, which is – needless to say – a Very Bad Thing. This problem has always existed. Unfortunately,
when the computer is in Sysprep audit mode, Setup will report to WU that OOBE is in progress even though it might not actually be so. This is the reason that updates from WU UIs are blocked in audit mode.
I was having the same exact issue when creating an updated WDS image for deployment to select end-users for testing.  At first, I thought I was doing something wrong.  This process--having a VM boot into audit mode so that it can be fully updated
with Windows Updates along with new and updated third-party applications so to become the baseline/template for deployment--has worked wonderfully since the Vista days.  And it worked perfectly with Windows 8.  Why did Microsoft choose to deprecate
the functionality is beyond me.
Its bad enough there is so very little traction in the corporate/Gov't world for Windows 8/8.1.  Now it seems that Microsoft, once again, is hades bent on destroying all that was good with Windows.
This is to prevent automatic updates from causing a system reboot during OOBE, which is – needless to say – a Very Bad Thing.
So this was a problem?  Really?  I don't ever recall that happening to me or ever reading about such an issue.  Even if this "issue" was a problem, why not just add another switch to the sysprep command to allow admins to specify
the allowance of updates.  Something like like sysprep /oobe /audit /AllowUpdates?  Is that too hard or too much to ask?
So now with the current Windows-won't-update-in-audit-mode default, if I chose to deploy over 200 Windows 8.1 Enterprise clients, I now have to have ALL 200 machines contact Microsoft Update or my internal WSUS (or push via Shavlik) for updates.  Regardless
of which method is used, the result is that 200 COMPUTERS must consume valuable network bandwidth for updates.  Not to mention there is always several machines that never act right.  Instead of having 200
identically configured machines, I end up with 200 similarly configured machines.
Exactly who is making these decisions?  Has anyone experienced the OOBE update issue that Microsoft claims is such a problem?
So disappointing.