Terry said:
Hi all,
I have a windows XP Pro machine that will not allow me access to the
Automatic updates service. Even if I log on in safe mode as Administrator!!
If I try to access this service I get and "Error 5: Access is Denied"
The machine had various viruses on it which I have cleaned off, I tried
updating to service pack 2 but this just made it worse so uninstalled it
again.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated
Terry
I have spent the last three days dealing with the same nightmare. I
finally got up, but I don't have an easy answer because...
(I think when SP2 installation aborted and uninstalled itself, it messed
up permissions on several registry keys, and finding them is an even
worse nightmare.)
1. Boot from XP CD (With SP1a) and go for "install". You get an option
to "R"ecover installed OS. This process looks like a full install, but
all it is doing is replacing the Windows files. The process ends up
"undoing" all tracks of your Windows Updates.
2. Fix the permissions in the Registry of all the keys that have been
previously messed up. For example, the first one I found is the very
one Microsoft used as an example: (Hmmmmm.)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324767
SP2 installer had backed up the registry, and got 28 errors that I was
able to click "ignore"
Then the installer did a backup to prepare for an uninstall.
Then the installer copied all the files for SP2
Then the installer started doing Registry changes, and that is when it
broke. "Access Denied" Logs are kept in the \Windows directory. You
can find the message there, with more detail, and in the Event Log.
That is how I found out the name of the registry key that had no
permissions.
The Uninstall also messed up other Windows functions including Windows
Update. It was nasty.
But I had to go through several cycles of
1. install SP2
2. Access Denied.
3. Identify the Registry key and fix it.
4. Let it uninstall
Do it all again, each cycle taking three hours to identify the next
broken key.
(No I don't have a record of the keys. All were in HKCR).
After all keys are identified, Windows Update still doesn't work right.
So I did the XP CD Boot / Repair and started all over. This time the
registry keys were fixed. It went all the way through SP2 and etc.
I am back up.
I think I am going to leave my Windows 2000 PC alone. No XP for it.
Carl
