wupdmgr.exe has stopped working

Some time later in the day after downloading the December Windows updates to my MSi netbook last Friday I discovered I could no longer go to Windows Update through the link in my Start menu. It appears, after some testing on both my XP Pro SP3 systems, that the program wupdmgr.exe is the culprit. When I double click on the program in both C:\windows\System32 and the one in C:\windows\System32\dllcache nothing happens.

However, when I do this in my desktop system both copies invoke IE 8 with the link: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com.

I have searched my Win XP Pro cd's and neither seems to contain the program. (I do not understand that at all!) Searching the web indicates that there is at least one trojan that uses that name so downloading a fresh copy is problematic as I cannot find it on any Microsoft web site for XP. Only a number of "other" sites that I am not familiar with.

I transferred a copy from my desktop to a temp folder in the netbook using my I-OGear KVM switch (USB to USB) and double clicked on this copy, again nothing happens except the HDD light flashes for a few seconds then everything stops.

Any suggestions?

 

Hummm. I use the classic view. I guess I should have mentioned that. I forget there is another view in XP that I absolutely hate. And I guess I was under the illusion everyone else hated it too and used the Classic View. My bad!

Anyway, at the very top of my Start menu (above the line) is a link (it is actually a shortcut) titled "Windows Update" that Windows puts there. Other shortcuts up there are titled "Windows Catalog" and "Set Program Access and Defaults ".

If you right click on the "Windows Update" shortcut and display Properties it displays a target of "%SystemRoot%\system32\wupdmgr.exe" and a "Start in:" value of "%HOMEDRIVE%%HOMEPATH%. The "Target Location:" is "system32 ".

And I consider clicking on this "Windows Update" shortcut as the old fashion way to go to Windows Update. As I mentioned in the original post clicking on this shortcut invokes the current version of IE containing the link to the Windows Update web site. Just like my old 98SE did.

 

More information:

I now suspect I may have some kind of malware or virus. The Window Update shortcut still does nothing. Today I can manually initiate IE but nothing happens and I cannot kill it. After trying repeatedly to kill it every way I know how Windows eventually wants to send out multiple error reports which I allow to happen.

I have scanned the entire system using the most through options with up-to-date free versions of Avast! Home, MalwareBytes, SUPERAntiSpyware, Windows Defender, and Threatfire. Nothing is found.

I have removed IE8 three times and I download a fresh copy using Firefox from the Microsoft download site each time but this does not help. I also tried the Windows Update shortcut when IE8 had been removed so Windows would use IE7 but the shortcut method still failed.

What should I do next? Any help is very much appreciated!

 

Continued in the Malware and Virus Removal forum at this link:Click Here