Paul,

Added one thing to the original post (it's never ending!)...

Hi there,

The article on the Wiki would have to be updated too then

Big Smiles

HS

O.K.

I am brand new to this forum although not new to posting. I came to Castlecops for the first time last night because of WMF exploit. That reminded me that I had two* systems where Automatic Updates did not work which I learned last May. I then went to the MSKB, tried numerous fixes, gave up and did manual updates. I just went back to see if the issue had been resolved and bingo, I'm back here again when I saw a thread there. Both systems at one time had Norton Internet Security and I "removed" both (care to guess when-May!)

When I use IE > Tools > Windows Update and click Express. I end up getting a window for Installing Updates which then does nothing (it freezes and I have to use Ctrl+Alt+Del to end IE and that window). If I then restart IE and go back to Windows Update select Review Your Update History from Options on the left, I see a long list of under Status indicating failed installs. Clicking the red failed install icon reports the infamous 0x80246008 Error Code.

I write all this because I'm wondering if that might help others better define what problem they might be fixing. In my case, it would seem I should go directly to Step 6 based on the Error Code 80246008 and the prior use of Norton.

In fact I wonder just how much of the activity this thread has gotten is due directly to Norton? If it is a lot (50% ?) perhaps the first paragraph should delineate BITS/AU problems and Norton BITS/AU problems and maybe a second sticky? And if Norton can be better identified herein, perhaps they would be (more) motivated to offer a packaged fix.

THANK YOU for an incredibly detailed and professional and updated fix. I have printed out the 9 pages and READ ALL PAGES of this forum thread. Being new, this is a very slow forum to load. I assume this might be because of all the hits you are now getting for WMF. My impression is there is a lot of sincere although extraneous replies included in this sticky making it extremely time consuming to digest all responses. A suggestion and I know difficult to judge how to, but perhaps some could be purged. Another suggestion (and I just hate first time posters making suggestions) is maybe the 9 pages could be zipped into a simple text file or noted as included with the download. I'm an old guy and I just have to have things printed. I apologize for the length of this post.

* I said two. It is three pc's. I bought a brand new eMachine in July. I immediately contacted their "tech support" chat line (IMHO, using the word "tech" with them is criminal) and had them remove the free trial of Norton. Yep, that machine stopped doing AU in July. This might be important-just because you have AU turned "on" does NOT mean you are getting updates. I have over 1150 "failed updates" on that system.

as too overly detailed in last post, (a) if you have problem with Automatic Updates, (b) get Error code 0x80246008 on failed installs of updates and (c) have used Norton , I would highly recommend trying Step #6 of the sticky BEFORE doing anything else. Go to item 3. and follow that link and read Mr. Botman's FEEDBACK section particularly about his fourth step. You will also probably need to write down Step 1 of the sticky here.

Note this is only suggested where those three conditions exist (a, b, c)

I used this on three pc's last night using ONLY Mr. Botman's fourth step, took maybe 5 minutes to do* and Automatic Updates appears to now be working fine on every system (XP home and XP Pro).

MekongDelta69 and Mr. Botman, I salute you both (with much thanks to Castlecops).


* not including the automatic installation of some 60MB of previously failed updates from MS

Glad it helped...

That's true about Step 6:
"In case you get Error 0x80246008"

AND IF you have a Symantec product, which is notorious for
miraculously screwing things up in certain instances, then you could
try Step 6 FIRST.

But don't forget that there are millions of PCs out there and everyone
has their own individual (and almost unique) setup, so I tried to write up
the original post to try to accommodate as many people as possible.

In the last year, I've received scores of replies and PMs, detailing
other people's individual problems (and "thank you's") and have tried to
incorporate the major fixes in the original post. Since there are infinite
possibilities and fixes, to incorporate everything would be completely
impossible. That would take a separate book.


Just check out the microsoft.public.windowsupdate Forum
to see all the problems, which people have with WU (BITS/AU).

Mike_____________

Hey MekongDelta69,
Well first i wanna say thnx for all ur effort and time, im sure it took a while for ya to type all the instructions. And i have to say its a pretty nifty way to solve this problem but however, i did that and my windows update still doesnt work.
The thing is that it loads up till the part where u have to choose from Express or Custom, now i tried both and it just kept Checking for the latest updates for my computer. It wouldn't budge, it would just stay there for hours. I know cause i actually waited for an hour to see if it'll work but unfortunately it didnt. I didn't get any errors. Do you have any other suggestions??? Thnx in advance!!!

Do you have any failed updates that may offer an error code?


"use IE > Tools > Windows Update and click Express. I end up getting a window for Installing Updates which then does nothing (it freezes and I have to use Ctrl+Alt+Del to end IE and that window). If I then restart IE and go back to Windows Update select Review Your Update History from Options on the left, I see a long list of under Status indicating failed installs. Clicking the red failed install icon reports the infamous 0x80246008 Error Code."

Hello mrag,
Nope i don't get any error codes, like i said before it works well until i click on Express, it just keeps on loading and loading, searching for the latest updates and remains there.