Windows Update Service

[Guest]

I am baselining XP SP2 for a production deployment.

In the initial Enterprise Build we did not permit Windows Automatic Update
to install and disabled it with policy to boot. The service does not appear
on pre SP2 machines. With SP2 installed the service is present and running.
There are messages in the event log about it. The Security Center shows it
as NOT enabled and it cannot be launched.

How do I remove the service from the machines. Any way to keep SP2 from
installing it. Maybe an edit in the update.inf?

 

[Mike Kolitz]

If you're in an Active Directory domain, you can create a policy that will
set the service's default state to Disabled.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=256345
(This article instructs you on how to change the default security for a
system service, but the instructions are similar for changing the default
state.)

Why would you want to do that, though? If you're not interested in getting
updates from WindowsUpdate itself, have you thought about deploying a SUS
server, so you have more control over which updates get applied to your
computers?

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserversystem/sus/default.mspx