Stealth Windows update prevents XP repair

[glc]

A silent update that Microsoft deployed widely in July and August is preventing the "repair" feature of Windows XP from completing successfully.

Ever since the Redmond company's recent download of new support files for Windows Update, users of XP's repair function have been unable to install the latest 80 patches from Microsoft.

http://windowssecrets.com/comp/070927/#story1

[EzyStvy]

I hate it when that happens;)
Would like to think a patch to patch the patch will be forth comming...

[systempat]

I encountered the problem. Did a repair installation of WinXP w/SP2 after a motherboard died.
I think this article may be the same as the other. But anyway if you have this problem the cure is down a way in the article to use the REGSVR32 command to register a set of DLL files.

http://windowssecrets.com/2007/09/27/03-Stealth-Windows-update-prevents-XP-repair

The symptoms are that Windows Update tells you that there are updates to install. Downloading was OK for me, then when you try to install the changes all the patches fail to install and it says there was a 'problem' with the installs. :eek: Trying it again does not make any difference. Also had to do a manual install of Windows Installer 3.1 which would not auto-install either.
It's so nice of our pals at MS to give us software updates with bugs in it! Between that and the 'silent installs' of the MS spyware known as Windows Genuine Advantage, I'm even more cautious and skeptical about their intentions than before.

Pat in the Desert

[Panama Red]

There may be another fix to this. I ran into this last nite on a pc that had used the HP Recovery option which is a Repair Install. Once I went to WU, I got the fault message and I couldn't activate Automatic Updates in the Control Panel. Decided to try the Microsoft Update instead of Windows Update site. The MU scan detected the need for registration of files and did it automatically. Once that "update" was complete all was well again.

[Negeva]

I'll never understand why M$ forced Autopatcher to close down. Tools like that help many ppl out with these silly errors. Ever since then, I've been forced to download all the updates and use .bat to install them - not done that since pre-Sp1 days.