xp won't accept updates

[chris hubrich]

my brother reinstalled xp and when I do the updates, it says that it was successful. When I reboot and go back to the updates, the same ones are there. Many things are wrong with not having the correct updates installed. Please help me figure this out. Thank you.

[evervigilant]

I get something like this at times. I've had several occasions where I installed an update through the automatic update application, but the next day it said the same update was ready to download. In my case, if I check in the Add/Remove Programs control panel, it shows that the Hotfix was, in fact, installed. After confirming this, I usually set Auto Update to no longer remind me about that one.

It seems to be somewhat less likely to happen if I download and install the update immediately after booting into Windows and then restart without starting any other programs. But I've never had it happen with an update I got directly from the Windows Update website. Personally, I'd suggest that if you can see the correct Hotfix number listed in Add/Remove, you can safely set it to ignore that update in the future.

Ironic that MS hasn't put out an update to their updater to fix this...

[chris hubrich]

when I try to install service pack 1, it does the same thing and doesnt show up in add and remove, or in the general tab of system properties. Like it never installed. Some of the other updates are in the add remove programs. I did try to install it by itself.

[evervigilant]

Yeah, that's pretty weird. Reminds me a lot of my office computer - I've never been able to install SP1 on it correctly. But since I've got all the previous updates that I want installed, I'm not concerned about it. Unless there's something specific you want from SP1 that you know you haven't been able to install separately (and assuming that everything works as it's supposed to), I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Hey, it's Windows - it's always going to have its ...umm... quirks.