As you may gather, I have XP Home (and the hump), and after reformatting 4 times in the last 2 weeks including twice this weekend, I am still unable to install the critical updates etc. This is a legit bona fide copy, and totally fresh instal that refuses to instal the updates. It downloads them real fine, but fails to instal.

There is only me as the user, but I would assume that something isnt allowing me total admin status..but blowed if I can find it.

If you think 4 reformats a bit excessive then your probably right. However I wont be beat by this thing, and I will get those updates installed even if I have to rip the hard drive and print them onto the disk itself....I wont stop at anything.

My copy of XP Office updates fine, as does all my security software, its just the OS system updates that wont.

Any ideas from our techie friends?

I have tried going in under safe mode and logging in as the admin, but it wont then connect to the net as my firewall steps in, and to be honest uninstalling the firewall everytime to to OS updates isnt on.

I have also tried creating another user, with admin mods but no joy.

Cheers guys.

By default xp home sets up all users with full admin rights. I have seen the problem you are describing at work though. Does your computer just hang installing one of the updates, if so get task manager going and look for a process called KB?????? or Q??????? and press end task on it, the rest of the updates should install. Failing that do a manual download (ie. not from windows update) of service pack 2 which includes all those updates till a few weeks ago.

Yes, I had thought about getting a hard copy of the updates, but I am not sure if my problem will still be there.

As for the hanging...no I dont get that It donwloads them but then just fails to install, telling me so quite happily (cheers MS) then returns to the update choice screen. If you want, you can go round and round all day with it.

It is almost like it is seeing me as just a guest.

Security Settings per chance?

similar problem encountered on one non-XP Pro machine at work. Ironically, it was the Sasser patch that caused the problem (KB835732 iirc )

Xp updates to SP2 on this lovely IBM latop here too, then reboots and knackers it. Took me four reformats and re-installs to get it stable again.

Find a friend who can lend you a copy of Pro.......evaluation purposes only, natch.

You guys should ditch 'al Micro$haft and move up to Linux, say bye bye to all those nasty worms, viruses, and downgrades cleverly marketed as upgrades

And, a software upgrade will no longer force you to replace all your hardware!

You guys should ditch 'al Micro$haft and move up to Linux' date=' say bye bye to all those nasty worms, viruses, and downgrades cleverly marketed as upgrades

And, a software upgrade will no longer force you to replace all your hardware![/quote']

blah blah blah the only reason Linux users aren't getting infected with worms and viruses is because the virus writers prefer to target the mass audience where they can do the most damage. If Linux was a more popular OS over Windows then it'd be Linux users having problems with infections.

Could be that you have a version of XP that has a serial number that has ben pirated a lot. Microsoft has set up SP2 not to work on copies of XP with a number of different serial numbers.

aixlad / DanielTheManual - if you want to have a linux vs windows flamewar, please start a new thread. Maybe some Mac owners will join in with you too.

Andy - William's suggestion may be valid although the odds of it happening seem rather steep. Have you checked the MS knowledgebase to see if anything like this is mentioned? Does your problem happen regardless of which update you try to apply, or are you starting with the same one each time?

aixlad / DanielTheManual - if you want to have a linux vs windows flamewar' date=' please start a new thread. Maybe some Mac owners will join in with you too.

Andy - William's suggestion may be valid although the odds of it happening seem rather steep. Have you checked the MS knowledgebase to see if anything like this is mentioned? Does your problem happen regardless of which update you try to apply, or are you starting with the same one each time?[/quote']

I wouldn't bet on the odds being steep. There was certainly a lot made about this feature of SP2 in the media at the time of its release. It made a point of the fact that while this would block many with illegal copies of XP upgrading that it would also hit innocent people who have quite legal copies as well. Seems to me that it would be worth while to contact MS to get them to check.

i know a few people with un-purchased copies of xp pro and had no probs installing anything, its all good

Do you have a firewall running at the same time, could well be stopping the update at a point where it wants to check online thru a different port

No, the problem is a system fault on my pc. I have found other instances of this problem after some serious Google searching, and most appear to be rectified with the removal.renaming of the system32 folder Catroot2. However, that doesnt quite do it it for me, but at least I know that MS have had this before.

Anyway, I have now obtained the current updates on CD via a magazine, so I,m gonna try it this way and see what turns up.