Windows Updates Won’t Install

Posted by Jamsi in Windows XP on November 1st, 2008 | no responses

I’ve seen this problem a few times, whereby you will be in the middle of doing a Windows Update and right after the updates have downloaded, they will refuse to be installed – often freezing and not showing any sign of further progress.

Here are a few solutions that are known to work.

Solution 1 – Reinstalling Windows Installer 3.1
Try installing a fresh new copy of Windows Installer 3.1. (Download it here). The Windows Installer is an application installation and configuration service, and is used by a number of Microsoft products to install applications on your computer.

Solution 2
If you are trying to install Updates via the Windows XP update agent (found in the start menu), try stopping the Agent service and then run Windows update through your web browser (Internet Explorer).

To do this, you must first stop the Automatic Update Server.

1) Click on your Start Menu, then Run
2) Type: services.msc
3) Find the row that says “Automatic Updates”, right click it and select “stop”.
4) Close the windows
5) Launch Internet Explorer and select the Tools menu, then “Windows Update”.
6) Proceed to run a Microsoft Windows Update

Good luck!

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