Windows XP Service Pack 3 Breaks Updates
Over a couple dozen times I’ve experienced this issue first-hand. After downloading and installing Windows XP Service Pack 3, if even on a brand-new or reimaged machine, neither Automatic Updates, Windows Updates nor Microsoft Updates work. Often, neither do Windows Defender updates work either, for that matter, following XP SP3 installation.
Several solutions are available, including using Dial-A-Fix to repair the Windows installation. Another solution involves creating a special batch file, which I’ve deployed for a number of Louisville clients with much success.
Another option is to download a new Windows Update agent. The x86 version can be downloaded directly from Microsoft.
Once downloaded, don’t install the agent yet, however. First, perform the following actions:
1. Click Start.
2. Select Run.
3. Type CMD.
4. Enter net stop wuauserv.
5. “%userprofile%\Desktop\WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe” /wuforce.
That may well do the trick, too.
