Problems with IE8 and SP3 blocking updates.

[stevespeed]

Hi, Hope someone can help me. I run a Pentium 4 machine with Windows XP
Media Centre Edition. I did the update to IE8 and then install SP3 thing
that other people have had trouble with. I had trouble too, so I
un-installed IE8 but got into the problems others have had with that. To cut
a long story short I managed to get back to IE7 and recovered my settings for
that. I un-installed SP3 and got my machine back to pretty much how it was.
Now I want to install SP3 but Windows update won't offer it to me as it seems
to think I already have it installed. The thing is, I want to run this
computer as part of my home lan and my sons computer running Vista cannot see
my XP machine. I want to install the LLD file but when I download that fix
it wont install as it says I already have a more recent version on my
machine, which I do not! So it seems to me that I have to get rid of the
registry entry or whatever it is that tells the whole Microsoft network that
I still have these things that I once installed but no longer have. If
anyone knows a way to do this, I would be very grateful to have your advice.
regards, Steve

 

[PA Bear [MS MVP]]

1. If you'd installed IE8 and then installed SP3, you wouldn't have been
able to uninstall IE8 without having first uninstalled SP3. Is that what
you did?

2a. What anti-virus application or security suite is installed and is your
subscription current? What anti-spyware applications (other than Defender)?
What third-party firewall (if any)? Were any of these applications running
in the background when you installed and/or uninstalled IE8 and/or SP3?

2b. Has a Norton or McAfee application ever been installed on this machine
(e.g., a free-trial version that came preinstalled when you bought it)?

3. Any chance you did a Repair Install without having first uninstalled IE7?

4a. Right-click on My Computer & select Properties; What WinXP version is
displayed here?

4b. Start | Run | (type) WINVER | OK => Post the complete, second line of
text you see in the resulting window.

5. Right-click on C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE <=this
file, select Properties, select Version (tab): What version is displayed
here (e.g., v8.0.6001.18697)?