Windows Updates

[Gizmokid2005]

Yup. I finally bit the bullet and decided with all the hardware and driver changes that my system has had that it's time for me to do a reformat reinstall of my XP Pro SP2 on my desktop.

Everything went fine yesterday until I decided that to do updates. I always turn automatic updates to notify only. So I went to windows update to install updates. It installed V3.1 of the updater software, normal of course)

I rebooted and went back to windows updates. I downloaded all 108 updates to install. They downloaded fine, but would NOT install even one of them. I ran through the steps that Microsoft has outlined. I re-registered the DLLs and even downloaded and installed the updater manually. Still the same issue. I even cleared out the downloaded files and the cache (that didn't exist). It re-downloaded all the files, but it wouldn't install again.

Thinking I may have had some bad files, I ran an sfc /scannow to repair them all back to SP2 original. That ran. I rebooted and STILL had the same issue. I thought that this could've been the disc, but this disc has been used NUMEROUS times for installations, repairs, etc and it has worked.

I was tired, and decided I'd probably reload again, so I decided to try to install SP3, just to see if it will work. SP3 downloaded and installed right up. No problems at all. Now I still have an update for IE6 that will NOT install at all. It fails every time.

The problem is, I don't want SP3 right now, I'm trying to stay away until I'm sure that everything that I use and run is fully compatible and there are no real serious issues with SP3.

So, I'm here to pick your brains. Any other ideas on what to do/try to make this work? Personally I think this is a windows thing not liking the fact that I don't have SP3 installed.

Thanks!

[TurcoLoco]

While, I look into this more, here is couple of things you can try:
~ Turn the automatic updates on so it d/ls and install them automatically.
Once it successfully had done so, then change it back to 'notify' only.

~ Create another account with admin level privileges and try the downloads after logging in as that user to see if you can do the updates.

[Gizmokid2005]

Hmm...I don't want it to install IE7 and the spyware removal tools and crap...that's why I told it to not automatically do it...

I'll try a different user though, after I get it reloaded again.

[Gizmokid2005]

Tried both...still fail. BUT SP3 works still....

[TurcoLoco]

Possibly during the initial update process something went crazy and corrupted the registry and possibly the files that are used and modified during this process might have been corrupt as well. I usually use ERUNT in between application installs and Windows updates so if something goes wrong and the cause is a corruption in the registry, reverting back with Erunt solves the issue. Or, Windows System Restore...

With Windows update, there is no telling what will break and when. If this is not a brand new system that you had XP installed and were able to run updates just fine, then I say why bother troubleshooting it, start from scratch again. Even if you found the cause and fix it, chances are, it or something else will break again down the line...

I don't blame you for doing the updates manually, I am the same way. I was staying away from IE7 but on one of the systems I did accidentally installed it but it is running pretty good. I think they worked out bunch of functionality and security bugs in it, so it seemed much better than the last time I tried it (like a year ago).

[Gizmokid2005]

No, I just started from scratch again. That's why I said that. Every time I installed IE7 it added a LOT of issues for me...

But right now, I'm just going to go with SP3 and see if I can get it working...but it still irritates me.

[cauzomb]

I've encountered some updates that require a reboot between each installation.

The windows update website should show which ones require rebooting, get the list of updates, select all the ones that don't require rebooting, and unselect the ones that require a reboot, you can install all the non reboot updates at once, deselect the ones that you don't want, then go back to windows update and do the other's that require rebooting, one at a time, rebooting each time.. Manually updating via the update website should allow you to deselect the ones that you don't want, or are unsure of.

[Gizmokid2005]

I rebooted after every sucessful install....none of the updates would install. Not one.

[cauzomb]

Is your windows installer service on?

[Gizmokid2005]

Yup...