Windows XP Manual Updates

[Ken Miller]

I'm having trouble with Windows Updates, and would
appreciate any advice. I just bought a new computer,
running Windows XP Home Edition, and have performed the
following:

--Uninstalled the free McAfee SW/Rebooted
--Installed Norton Internet Security/Rebooted
--Set up AOL account/Rebooted
--Downloaded/Installed Norton Internet Security
Upgrades/Rebooted
--Tried unsuccesfully to download/install windows updates.

On this last step, I attempted to do what Microsoft
recommended in their "Three Steps to Protect Your PC."
This document said that, before I set up my computer to
do Automatic updates, I should do a manual update
(because Automatic updates will not download critical
updates that were released before I set up Automatic
updates). So, I did the following:
--Go wo http://windowsupdates.microsoft.com
--Scan for updates
--Select 'Critical Updates and Service Packs'
--Click 'Review and Install Updates'
--Click 'Install Now'

It seemed to be downloading just fine, until it got to
the point where it seemed downloading was (very nearly?)
completed. At that point it just hung. There are three
indicators of how much download is done/remaining to be
done. First, a count, which said something like
21.7M/21.7M (seems done). Second, a status bar, which
had slowly filled all the way from left to right (seems
done). Third a 'time-remaining' indicator, which hung
at '< 1 minute' or '6 minutes', depending on how many of
the updates I was trying to download at one time.

The 'Installing' indicator bar remained empty, as though
it never finished downloading and started installation.
This is also confirmed by the fact that whenever I would
go through these steps again, it would always find the
same 25 upgrades that it would say I needed. However,
when I finally would click the 'Cancel' button, it would
tell me that if I cancelled, installation would fail.
So, one time, I waited a long time, with no apparent
activity.

Advice?
Thanks,
Ken

 

[Charlie H.]

What happens when you try to download and install just one
of the critical updates? Go down the list and remove all
but one small sized update (just a few hundred k in size)
and see if that works.

 

[Ken Miller]

Charile,
Thanks. I did try that, with basically the same result.
In fact, I first tried repeating the entire list, and the
download went very quickly (within 1 minute), so clearly
(almost?) everything HAD been downloaded to my computer
and is cached there somewhere. But it hung up in the
same way. Then I tried what you suggested: same thing,
only it said "< 1 minute remaining" instead of "6 minutes
remaining". Tonight, I even disabled Norton and tried
again. No difference.
So tomorrow, I'm going to try downloading SP1A at work,
cutting a CD, and bringing it home to install.
Hopefully, that will include most of the 25 updates I
need, and I can download the remaining and install them
manually (i.e. not using Live Updates).

 

[Bill James]

Your plan to download SP1 and install is good, but there will still be some updates needed. If you still see the problem after SP1 is installed, try this with one of the offered updates: Click on the "more..." link in the details of the update, which will take you to another page which will also offer a link for direct download of the update. I have seen one or two updates get "stuck" (for lack of a better description) on a given computer, but after installing them manually Windows Update works normally for future updates. I don't know why this happens, but if it is a one time fix then the little extra hassle is not such a big deal.

--

Bill James
Microsoft Shell/UI

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