Microsoft and Windows Update Workaround

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Following on from our last post on how Microsoft and Windows Update is broken, we’ve come up with a workaround that made it possible for us to get the updates working again - well sort of working!

The system under question was an older laptop which had just had a clean install of Win XP Pro, followed by an install of Service Pack 2 from CD. At which point, Microsoft and Windows update was more broken than a champagne glass thrown off the top of the Empire State Building!

We tried many of the suggested fixes that Microsoft Support are recommending, none of which worked. This one worked for us:

- Set Windows updates to Download and install when I tell you.

- Went to the Windows update site which FAILED. Closed Internet Explorer Window.

- Went to the Microsoft Update site, which almost worked once. Kept IE window open this time.

- Visited the Windows Update Catalog Download website to attempt a manual download of all the required updates and patches.
Note: This is a full list of all the patches and updates available so of which may already be installed or may not even before for your set-up. Take care!

- Allowed it to install a older version (v4) of Windows Update ActiveX control.

- Left the computer overnight thereby allowing the downloads to flow down or at least to make a decent attempt to be downloaded over a sensible amount of time!

- Went back to the Microsoft update IE windows and did a page refresh (F5 key), which this time came back in a matter of seconds with a report of 55 updates available for download. Even better the updates had been downloaded in the background due to the earlier steps in this procedure.

- Let Microsoft update install the patches as normal.

- Following this you can try the latest Microsoft and Windows Update websites as they may well be working again - it did for us! v6 Windows and Microsoft update now works on the laptop after following this procedure.

There must be something in the older v4 update tool that makes it more stable! The suspicion is that something is installed from a time when Windows update actually worked reliably. Perhaps this is missing or corrupt in the current v6 tool. Best of all, Windows update now only takes about 4 - 5 minutes to run, find the updates and catalog the ones that are required.