Automatic Updates Help

I am having an issue with automatic updates in Windows XP. I have it set to allow XP to download the updates for me. The 2 situations I've been having are the following:
1. One situation is that the little icon indeed appears in the taskbar, but it stays at 0% and
2. another situation I've turned off updates and then decided to turn it back on, but this time the icon doesn't appear at all on the taskbar.

I'm trying to use automatic updates in order to download that bulky service pack 2 package and other stuff. I've done everything I could. I've used utilities to check for spyware/adware and I updated my antivirus software, but the same stuff still happens. What can possibly be done?

 

ras951--Can you access the Windows Update site and run a scan? If yes, you can get the download from there. If no, the problem with access to a scan and the 0% icon in your Notification area may be that your IE Tools|Internet Options|Security tab|Custom Level settings do not permit "Run ActiveX Controls and PlugIns ".
Have a look.
P.S. To simply my life, I have put many MS sites like www.microsoft.com and the Windows Update site URL into my Trusted Sites.

 

Go into Admin Tools> Services and make sure Windows Auto Update, and BITs service and Event Logging are enabled. If you have already downloaded SP2, it may not be able to install unless these services are running. Unhide your system folders and look for SP2, if you think you might already have gotten it. If you go to the Windows Update site, you will be prompted to install the new ver 5 WU software. You need that to get any updates in the future. It's possible that something started downloading or installing and was either interrupted, or "got stuck ".

Johanna

 

Someone told me that the SP2 update was designed to make it easier to sell the unwashed masses on a new system. Ya think?

 

surferdude2--My impression is that MS became concerned, based on negative publicity, that their programs (especially IE) were subject to too many security problems and that most people did not take advantage of the Security patches MS offered (after the fact--but better late than never). So, in SP2, MS just decided to make fairly strict Security settings the default settings. And probably that was the main objective of SP2.

 

Hi Jim,

I've always considered "Automatic Update and Install" to be like letting someone else play your hand while you went to the rear. I hate to see it be a requirement of any system update especially when it can cause grief to a system that was previously sound. I like to hear all the facts and decide for myself if I need to make changes.

If it's a dumbed down way to prevent the uninitiated and unprotected from infecting the rest of us, I love it. I still don't want it for my own consumption until I know all the details. I've hated forced inoculation ever since what they did to me in the first grade and also my old army days. I'm opting out of the Auto Update for the time being.

Best regards.

 

Surferdude2,
I may be paranoid, but I do not let software, including MS, to connect to the net w/o my knowledge and permission. The only software with carte blanche is Symantec. (Ya gotta trust someone!)

At first, this SP2 thing had me bothered- that MS figured they knew better than me how to set my system, and someone on the BBS wisely pointed out that MS is "dumbing it down" for the convenience of people like us. You and I, and most of the folks here, will set our systems to our needs, no matter what defaults MS, or any other software, tries to do. The "unwashed masses" will live in MS defaults, and, with luck, will be less of a danger to other internet users. (Like, Aunt Sally won't get an infection and bomb your family address book, making you stay up late at night and say bad words while you are fixing all of them!) So, I suppose that might be good for us in the long run.

Meanwhile, I'll do my own updating, at my discretion, and no program is going to run on my computer w/o my approval. Period. I took wscntfy personally, and wauaclt showing up arbitrarily had me aghast.

Johanna
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=34800&highlight=wauaclt

 

Johanna, you can work on my crew anytime!