There’s been a lot of web talk over the past few weeks over the discovery that Microsoft has been sending out “stealth” software (surprise!) updates that install themselves on users’ computers without informing them or even asking them if they wanted the updates. PC World says that Gregg Keizer over at Computerworld reported on September 12 that these updates were installing themselves even when the user (you or me) had automatic updates disabled. That revelation came from Scott Dunn, an editor at the “Windows Secrets” newsletter. In fact, after initially thinking the problem was basically benign, Dunn discovered that there are circumstances where you could be stymied in your ability to completely restore Windows XP after using an OS “repair” function.
If you do end up in the jam described above, there is help. The company’s Microsoft Update blog provides instructions on how to solve the problem if you’re of a geeky bent, as well as a link that provides contact info for free tech support for this problem, a company spokesperson said in an e-mail today.
Here is what Microsoft has to say on the issue:
Here’s what we found: when an XP repair CD is used, it replaces all system files (including Windows Update) on your machine with older versions of those files and restores the registry. However, the latest version of Windows Update includes wups2.dll that was not originally present in Windows XP. Therefore, after the repair install of the OS, wups2.dll remains on the system but its registry entries are missing. This mismatch causes updates to fail installation.
If you experience this issue, you can contact customer service using the contact info at http://support.microsoft.com/security. Additionally, a KB article describing the steps to resolve this issue will be available soon. I will update this blog with a link to the KB article when it is available. In the meantime, here are the steps included in the KB:
[Updated 9/28] Here is the new KB article: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=943144
1. Stop the Automatic Updates service. To do this, follow these steps:
a. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
b. At the command prompt, type the following commands, and then press ENTER after each command:
net stop wuauserv
exit
2. Register the file that is used by Windows Update and Microsoft Update. To do this, follow these steps:
a. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
b. At the command prompt, type the following command, press ENTER after the command, and then click OK when you receive a verification message:
regsvr32 %windir%\system32\wups2.dll
Note: for x64 machines regsvr32 %windir%\syswow64\wups2.dll
3. Start the Automatic Updates service. To do this, follow these steps:
a. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
b. At the command prompt, type the following commands, and then press ENTER after each command:
net start wuauserv
exit
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