Windows Error Reference
1 model · 26 error codes
Browse Windows error code collections, meanings, and related context across the current corpus.
About Windows Error Reference
Windows uses a multi-layered error reporting system that surfaces errors through different channels depending on the subsystem involved. The Event Viewer collects structured events from the kernel, services, and applications. Windows Update reports failures through numeric codes in the 0x8024xxxx range. COM and the Windows API use structured HRESULT values like 0x80070005 (Access Denied). Application crashes produce Watson reports and exit codes. Each channel has its own error code format, and understanding which channel produced the code is the first step in diagnosis.
The most frequently encountered Windows error codes come from three sources. Win32 system error codes (decimal numbers 0–15999) appear in file operations, registry access, and service management. HRESULT values (32-bit hexadecimal like 0x80070005) appear in COM, Windows Update, and application error reporting — the 0x8007xxxx range maps Win32 error codes into HRESULT format, so 0x80070005 corresponds to Win32 error 5 (ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED). Windows Update errors (0x8024xxxx) indicate problems with the update delivery mechanism, not with the operating system itself.
FixerCode documents 26 Windows error codes across 1 model, covering Win32 system errors, HRESULT values, and Windows Update codes. Each entry identifies which Windows subsystem produces the code, what the underlying Win32 error is, and where users typically encounter it.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Windows error codes appear in several places: the Event Viewer (structured event logs from the kernel, services, and applications), Windows Update settings (numeric update failure codes), application crash dialogs (HRESULT values or exit codes), and programmatic contexts (Win32 API return values and COM HRESULT values). The channel where you see the code determines which subsystem produced it.
An HRESULT is a 32-bit value. Bit 31 indicates severity (1 = failure). Bits 16–26 indicate the facility (0x7 = Win32, 0x4 = RPC, 0xA = Windows Update). Bits 0–15 indicate the specific error code. For codes in the 0x8007xxxx range, the last four hex digits map directly to the Win32 system error number — for example, 0x80070005 maps to Win32 error 5 (ERROR_ACCESS_DENIED).
Yes. Windows Update errors use the 0x8024xxxx range, where the 0x24 facility indicates the Windows Update Agent (WUA). These codes describe problems with the update delivery mechanism — proxy authentication, server unavailability, or download failures — not with the operating system itself. Regular Win32 system errors use simple decimal numbers (0–15999) or HRESULT values in the 0x8007xxxx range.