In another thread I’ve sought help because when I run Windows Update it reports no updates are available, though it’s been since February that I’ve updated. Well, several hours of work later, still nothing. Did virus and malware things, replaced IE, followed several ideas in the Microsoft Knowledge Base, etc etc etc.
So…
Is there a way to figure out what updates I need manually, and get them and install them?
Windows XP Pro on a Dell 4600.
You may have tried this, but it’s worth tossing out… if you go to the start menu, (my start menu anyway) I have a button that says Windows Update. Have you tried that?
-Lil
Have you tried:
You should be able to view the security bulletins and download the patches manually.
If you are really hardcore about this, you could try this batch file to pull ALL of the updates so that you can burn them onto a CD and install all or any of them as needed.
ftp://ftp.heise.de/pub/ct/listings/0413-194.zip
This thing can download all of the updates for you and then install them from the local copy.
Caution: This is from a German computer magazine, so you may have trouble with the language.
Just my .02 on this issue.
Have you tried running the updates while in “Safe Mode”?
We had a problem at work a couple of weeks ago where people were not able to download updates (they were told there were no new updates) and we found out that it was a virus causing the problem. We had to boot in to safe mode and download a particular update (I can’t remember exactly which one it was, but I can see if I have the notes at work) and after that go to Windows Update and run the search again.
You could also go through and look at all the hotfixes you currently have installed and figure out which patches they relate to and see if you are missing any. That would probably be a huge PITA though.
You can use the Baseline Security Analyzer to see which patches your machine needs, then download them from Windows Update Catalog.
More specifically, you’d need to be in Safe Mode With Networking to be able to download anything.
If XP won’t update, and you’ve been through all the usual suspects, it may be that the OS or the registry is broken, or otherwise munged up at a fairly fundamental level. I’d save my data, re-format and re-install. There’s so much crap that windows IE is letting in the back door that security updates are critical.
Oh, and I left something out. You can apply several hotfixes at once with only a single reboot if you run qchain.exe at the end. It doesn’t have any visible effect, but it keeps key system files from getting overwritten with the wrong versions.
PROBLEM SOLVED!
That is, Windows Update now works automatically. I’m filing the above postings for future reference - Thanks, everybody!
What fixed my problem? I posted my query on the BroadbandReports.com satellite forum, thinking my new DirecWay internet connection could be the problem. People there said my Linksys BEFSX41 router’s default MTU setting of 1500 would not allow Update to work, and I should use 1460 instead. So I made the change and now it works!
My understanding of what routers do is pretty hazy, and it’s not helped by various web sites and textbooks that each seem to describe them differently. Generally my understanding is that a router digests each packet by stripping and rebuilding the header information according to various changeable rules, so for instance it can use a translation table to change the destination address, or it can block packets with undesireable headers. Then it passes each packet along (the router has a WAN side and a LAN side and everything it does involves passing packets between sides). It does this according to different rules for each direction, and generally treats the WAN side as potentially untrustworthy. I have not a clue what MTU is in particular.
I highly recommend BroadbandReports to anyone interested. It’s free (if you want a slightly reduced access account which, for me, has been perfectly satisfactory). This is probably the 3rd of 4th time I’ve gotten some absolutely obscure issue fixed.