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Automatic updates fail after installation of Windows XP SP3

Written by Christian on May 23, 2008 – 6:11 pm


After the installation of Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), you might face some trouble with the Automatic Updates feature in Windows XP. In my case, I wasn’t able to install new updates.

An example of the error I got was:

Security Update for Windows XP with Windows Media Format Runtime 9.5 and 11 (KB941569) failed

The solution for this problem is re-registering some DLL-files. The steps below fix the problem if auto updates fail after a fresh install of Windows XP SP3

Open Start, Run, and run these commands, one by one:

regsvr32 /s wuapi.dll
regsvr32 /s wuaueng1.dll
regsvr32 /s wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 /s wucltui.dll
regsvr32 /s wups2.dll
regsvr32 /s wups.dll
regsvr32 /s wuweb.dll

You can also open Notepad, paste the above commands, save the file as RepairAU.bat, and run RepairAU.bat. This should save you approximaticaly 20 seconds of your lifetime :-)

Next time you open Windows Update / Microsoft Update, you should have no problems installing new updates.

Note: I surely believe Microsoft feels very sorry for this bug in SP3, and they really want to offer a hotfix for this problem, but since this hotfix would be offered by Automatic Updates, that won’t make much sense :-)


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Posted in Windows XP |

19 Comments to “Automatic updates fail after installation of Windows XP SP3”

  1. LcAncio Says:

    excellent. thanks for your smart contribution. god bless you more everyday.

  2. June Hur Says:

    I’m suffering same problem for several days.
    I really appreciate for your tip.

  3. Anne Says:

    I think this is going to work. Thanks

  4. CaTs Says:

    Thank you very much for ur post. I just ran it like u said and it worked great.

  5. Steve Says:

    Thank you! You saved me from pulling my hair out (at least what I have left)!

  6. tinus Says:

    Great, this fixed my problem!

  7. Steve Says:

    Thanks m8!

  8. antonello Says:

    Very good,
    I had the suspect it was for Sp3.. but
    I wouldn’t belive it
    Thank you :-)

  9. Graham Says:

    Brilliant! I’ve been looking for a solution for two months since I installed SP3 on my HP laptop. None of them worked, but this one did, and now I’m up to date. Thanks a bunch!

  10. Andrew Says:

    Awesome. Worked perfectly. Too bad Microsoft hasn’t figured a way to put this in their help section. Thanks!

  11. Kevin Says:

    Beautiful! that’s a huge life saver!!! you’re my hero.

  12. Damon Says:

    Thank you so much!!

    :notworthy:

  13. Duinkonijn Says:

    Tnx :P 8)7

  14. Richard Says:

    Add my Thank You Very Much to the rest. But, I wonder why the problem exists on some XP SP3 installations, but not the other? For example, my old Toshiba laptop hasn’t had the problem; but, my new MacMini BootCamp XP SP3 install update did?

  15. Christian Says:

    Richard,
    thank you for your comment. Although I’m not sure, I can imagine that it has something to do with the version of the Automatic Update client. For example, I had installed the Microsoft Update (the extended version of Windows Update). In addition, it may be possible that multiple versions of the Windows Update client work with the Microsoft site. So to make myself more clear: version 1.0 is required, but the newest version is 1.03, which will also work with the Windows Update website.
    So the kind of Update client (Windows/Microsoft) as well as the version number of the client could explain the fact that some people have the problem while others don’t experience a problem at all.

  16. Laurent Says:

    Thanks!

    Happy that peoples like you exists on tis Earth :)

  17. Stephen Says:

    Great fix, been looking at MS fixes for a week and was starting to run out of patience. Had not come accross itexperience.net before but will check it in the future.
    Thanks for sharing a fix that must have been fairly time consuming.

  18. kat Says:

    Thank you thank you thank you.
    I echo Andrew’s sentiments, “Too bad Microsoft hasn’t figured a way to put this in their help section.”
    Thank goodness for Google - that’s how I found your fix!

  19. Vassa Says:

    GOLD!! That was really pi$$ing me off. Thanks.

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