# Installed SP2, now Windows Update doesn't work **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 9, 2005, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installed-sp2-now-windows-update-doesnt-work/283831 "2005-01-09T03:17:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installed-sp2-now-windows-update-doesnt-work/283831/1 "2005-01-09T03:17:07Z")
After several months of procrastinating, I got around last week to installing Windows XP SP2, and since then I haven’t been able to access Windows Update at all. As soon as I type the URL into any web browser and hit enter, the browser freezes and has to be closed from Ctrl+Alt+Delete, and Automatic Updates hasn’t been running either. Furthermore, on attempting to browse Microsoft’s help site for a solution, all of their help pages are blank. Has anyone had or heard of a problem similar to this? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installed-sp2-now-windows-update-doesnt-work/283831/2 "2005-01-09T03:20:41Z")
Almost forgot - while I can get to the website if I load the webpage from Safe Mode, I get the same error when I try to search for updates. ---
**Author:** ![moes\_lotion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ba0ec/32.png) [@moes\_lotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moes_lotion)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installed-sp2-now-windows-update-doesnt-work/283831/3 "2005-01-09T05:30:34Z")
While my experience was a bit different, it may help. I run Win 2000 Professional, and had it set to automatically notify me of new updates, but not to automatically download and install them. So I get a notification that updates are available and dutifully go to the update site. There were about 8 or 9 critical upadtes pending, so I said yes to all and sat back to let the process run. Part way through the sixth or seventh, an error massage appeared to the effect that a system component could not be updated because it was in use. I’d never seen this message before, and the only way I could get past it was to hit ctrl-alt-del to bring up task manager and stop internet explorer. I restarted the computer and went back to the update site to see waht would happen. The front page loaded fine, but when I clicked on check for updates, the program hung - I could close it normally (no need to ctrl-alt-del) but the update no longer worked. I noticed that some other programs which use internet explorer for their help pages were also no longer working properly. Since I have, and normally use, netscape navigator as my main browser, I uninstalled internet explorer and then used navigator to reinstall internet explorer. This solved the problem, although there were a ton of critical updates for explorer that had to be reinstalled. ---
**Author:** ![AmbushBug](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ambushbug/32/4600_2.png) [@AmbushBug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmbushBug)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2005, 6:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/installed-sp2-now-windows-update-doesnt-work/283831/4 "2005-01-09T06:03:53Z")
Is the computer in question a member of a “domain”, or is it a “workstation”? With domain computers, Windows Update became more aware of Network Security Policies for domain-attached computers - if you domain policy is broken you may start noticing it, whereas before SP2 the policies were not enforced. On my work computer, I actually managed to get a message stating “You don’t have permission to update Windows” while I was logged on as local Administrator. Also. Check the “C:\WINDOWS\Downloaded Program Files” folder, which may contain ActiveX controls related to Windows Update, get the Properties of some of the numeric ones and delete the windows-update related ones as they may be damaged, and try again.