AstroSkipper

@maile3241 Please more explanation! I thought you want to patch sfc_os.dll. What is your problem? Why rshx32.dll?

@maile3241 You have to copy sfc_os.dll to another folder or partition. There you can patch this file as described in this post But you must pay attention to the version of your system. This patching instruction works for Windows XP Pro SP3 with sfc_os.dll file version 5.1.2600.3264 or higher. If you have Win XP without Servicepack or SP1 or SP2 it doesn't work. In these cases follow this German instruction of famous WinFAQ (and I know you are German): http://www.winfaq.de/faq_html/Content/tip0500/onlinefaq.php?h=tip0504.htm. After successful patching you have to replace the file first in system32\dllcache and then in system32. Then restart your computer and replace wuaueng.dll as described. I did the patching process by using HxD 2.4.0.0 Hexeditor. By the way if you use an Hexeditor you can see whether there is the code you want to change or not. If you have problems to replace files due to blocking copy these files using an external boot medium like linux or WinPE. which gives you access to your folders and partitions.

@maile3241 There were all three urls from the very first but no problem. Thanks for feedback.

No, in step 3 there are three urls related to MU. Maybe you have missed it.

@maile3241 Where is it missing? In my third step I already wrote to add it to Trusted zone of IE. Maybe a little bit more explanation, please!

And this is a certificate updater to get the most recent root certificates: https://msfn.org/board/topic/175170-root-certificates-and-revoked-certificates-for-windows-xp/?do=findComment&comment=1095349

@ExtremeGrief Sorry, I should do nothing. I am not the author of these packages and patches. I am a user like you and have examined my problems by restoring MU. This little guide some posts above is the result of my examinations to help other users. And once again I "should" do nothing. But you should reflect on how to speak to a member. First read the whole thread and then you will understand.

@Dave-H Maybe perform all steps in my new post: As I told you I had a lot of troubles to restore MU in my system. I had all error codes someone could get. I think your error code has been one of them. Maybe you have a BIOS date/time problem due to low cmos battery but I don't think so. My advice: Do all the steps once again and do not miss anyone! You know Windows is very often a mystery.

This thread is a little bit confusing especially for people looking for help. So I have made a complete guide with all tips and steps which have to be performed to restore access to Microsoft Update web site and are working for me. Of course at your own risk without any guarantee! And just to clarify: I am not the author or contributor of these patches and tools. I am a user and have examined my problems while restoring MU in Windows XP. This guide is the result of my examinations to help other users. Of course I did some modifications due to the fact that some patches don't work properly or something is missing. If you want improvements of these tools and patches, please contact the authors! Complete guide for restoring Microsoft Update in IE To be successful in restoring of access to MU web site, you have to keep the order of following steps. Please, do not change this order! 1. Check BIOS and Windows date and time incl. correct time zone. Perform a time sync! 2. If you have used "WSUS server" in combination with "WUMT" in the past remove it completely by "Remove_wsus.cmd". This batch file does not work properly, so you have to remove this registry key manually: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate. You can let "Remove_wsus.cmd" perform this by adding following line (without quotes): "reg delete "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate" /f". Start Automatic Update service. In system panel Automatic Update may not be shown greyed out. 3. Go to Windows Services. Three system services are absolutely important for MU: bits, wuauserv and cryptsvc. These services should have been started and set to automatic. 4. Configure Internet Explorer. Internet Zone to standard, Trusted Zone to high with only these three urls related to MU: http://www.update.microsoft.com, https://www.update.microsoft.com and http://update.microsoft.com. Credits to @maile3241 and @AstroSkipper. Go to Internet Explorer Options, Advanced. Check if TLS 1.2 is enabled. Uncheck entry "Check for server certificate revocation". 5. Before installing updates apply "PosReady.reg" if not already done. 6. Install these four updates KB4467770, KB4019276, KB4493435, KB942288-V3. Credits to @maile3241. 7. Apply "Tls 1.2.reg". Credits to @maile3241 8. Execute "rootsupd.exe". 9. Install the latest Windows Update Agent 7.6. It's version 7.6.7600.256. Download link: http://download.windowsupdate.com/windowsupdate/redist/standalone/7.6.7600.320/WindowsUpdateAgent-7.6-x86.exe 10. Install "ProxHTTPSProxy". Download link: https://i430vx.net/files/XP/ProxHTTPSProxyMII_REV3d_PY344.7z, credits to @heinoganda. Here you have to edit the config file "config.ini". Under section [SSL No-Verify] I added fe2.update.microsoft.com and deleted update.microsoft.com under sections [SSL Pass-Thru] and [BYPASS URL]. This is working for me. 11. Download and install one of these packages: an English all in one version, credits to @Windows7fan from MDL, @xpandvistafan, @maile3241 and @AstroSkipper from MSFN: https://drive.google.com/u/0/uc?id=1z5NGORov8OS7iBkoFVsvWOTOE1_LCjoQ&export=download or a German all in one version, based on version above, modified and updated by @AstroSkipper: https://www.mediafire.com/file/0y1zmwv8z4lch9s/Restore_WU_XP_DE.7z/file. Credits to @Windows7fan from MDL, of course. Here you have to check if "install.cmd" did its job properly i.e. all commands in "install.cmd" should have been performed completely. Additionally you have to verify the existence of patched "wuaueng.dll" in both folders system32 and system32\dllcache in form of a binary comparison.. Be aware of SFC which tries to restore an original old version of this file! After patching restart your computer and recheck! Verify if really all registry entries have been added.i All bold files mentioned here are in these all in one versions included. They can be installed manually (all registry entries of "install.cmd" have to be added manually too) or automatically by applying "install.cmd". 12. If you have problems in configuring ProxHTTPSProxy, or you get error code 0x80072f8f while trying to access MU web site, have a look in my thread: 13. Use "CAupdater" or "Certificate Updater 1.6" to update your root certificates. Download link of Certificate Updater 1.6 can be found here: 14. If the button "Check for updates" doesn't work on MU, close Internet Explorer, open MU from Start Menu again and in most cases it will load successfully. 15. If you have a fresh installation or a reinstallation of Windows XP, it seems to be necessary to install MU ActiveX Control manually because it won't be downloaded automatically any longer. Without any confirmation by me (no opportunity to check it), here is a guide how you can do that. Credits to @maile3241: 16. If on MU web page error code 0x80072F78 appears, turn off your firewall temporarily. If MU is working now, add the program "wuauClt.exe" into the exception list of your firewall and turn your firewall back on. In any case ProxHTTPSProxy or HTTPSProxy must not be blocked by your firewall. Same for Internet Explorer, of course. If on MU web page other error codes appear, rename the windows folder "SoftwareDistribution" to "SoftwareDistribution.old" and let MU generate a fresh one. Maybe you have to disable a "HTTPS scanning" feature of your security software temporarily or make exclusions for MU related sites. 17. Do not use the same "DataStore.edb" in "SoftwareDistribution" for WSUS server/WUMT and MU web version. I have two DataStore.edb files, one for WSUS server and one for MU. One for all doesn't work in my system. 18. Use only http-links to open MU in IE. Direct link is http://fe2.update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en or http://fe2.update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en&g_sconsumersite=1 19. MU is only working if ProxHTTPSProxy is enabled. 20. For testing I add a link of my working ProxHTTPSProxy's config.ini: https://www.mediafire.com/file/vr1klatuzjh6v5c/ProxHTTPSProxy_-_config.ini/file 21. If completing all of these steps didn't help you at all, even after repeated execution, you may have a rather general problem relating to MU in your Windows XP installation. In this case you can try to manually reset Windows Update components. Here is my post how you can do that: After that kind of reset I recommend to perform all steps once again (from step 1 to 20 inclusive). Of course, some steps won't be necessary any more but checking which to perform or not will cost a lot of time, therefore senseless. Although I am not a friend of automatisms, I also offer a tool here to perform this reset of Microsoft or Windows Update automatically. Anyway, I recommend to backup your system partition completely at first. This tool called Reset Windows Update Tool (Script) is said to be working properly, but it has not been tested by me, so no guarantee of success and use at your own risk. The last XP compatible version is 10.5.3.7: https://www.mediafire.com/file/k48ll6e41eypogy/ResetWUEng10.5.3.7.zip/file and a less recent version 10.5.3.4 with a help file included: https://www.mediafire.com/file/wl0yrq98me8dfkj/ResetWUEng10.5.3.4.zip/file 22. If unfortunately none of all these 21 steps helped you, then you should presumably think about a complete reinstallation of Windows XP. I did all these steps (except steps 21 and 22) and for me MU is working flawlessly in my Windows XP Professional system. For further detailed instructions and missing files perform a search in this thread and enjoy the screenshots we all have uploaded! If you enjoyed this guide or maybe you found it interesting and helpful, I would be pleased about any reaction by liking or upvoting. Greetings from Germany, AstroSkipper PS: This guide will no longer be maintained. It will stay here just for historical purpose. The new, maintained and up-to-date version can be found here:

Are you running ESET/NOD32 anti-virus? If so and you have SSL protocol filtering enabled you need to add an exception for MU related sites or you have to disable this feature. Same in AVAST called HTTPS Scanning. My security program is AVAST Premier and I have disabled HTTPS scanning. Another method is letting MU generate a completely new SoftwareDistribution folder. Maybe there are faulty downloaded updates in this folder. Here some other methods to fix error code 0x80072F8F: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/error-code-0x80072f8f/d5006dbe-5946-4d68-8f08-8620eeb65efd here very interesting method 3 and 4. Hope you can fix it. Greetings from Germany

Hi @dave-h, I had a lot of error codes getting from MU site. Now it is working perfectly. Did you use WSUS server in combination with WUMT in the past? If so maybe your DataStore.edb is corrupt. This was one of my problems. Stop Automatic Update Service, make a backup of SoftwareDistribution folder, then delete DataStore.edb. Start Automatic Update Service again and try to access MU via ProxHTTPSProxy. MU generates a new DataStore.edb file. With your backup of DataStore.edb you can go back to old history whenever you want. I have two DataStore.edb files, one for WSUS server and one for MU. One for all doesn't work in my system. If that doesn't help try HTTPSProxy which came from Thomas S.. I use it and everything works flawlessly. Editing config file is necessary. My entries I provided some posts above. In my system I have both configured ProxHTTPSProxy and HTTPSProxy and they are working without any problems if config file has the correct entries.

Strangely, that redirects to http://fe2.update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate. That trailing period looks wrong and the link just gives a server error page. (That may have been the original problem, but I couldn't see the error because IE's https: handling hid it from me.) But if you remove that trailing period (i.e., http://fe2.update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate), it works! (BTW, MU takes way longer to scan than WU, but that makes sense because I have Office 2010 and I think one of its cumulative updates triggers the old "scans forever" bug. Oh, well; at least I can get to the scan now!) I'd still love to know why the MU link on the WU page worked a few days ago but doesn't now, but since removing the trailing period works, I'll just bookmark the link that way and not worry about it. Yes I copied your config.ini entries from your screen shot earlier. They work fine but didn't solve the MU problem, since the redirect on M$'s server is apparently wrong (has that extra period as shown above). If you want to have a working Microsoft Update shortcut in your start menu you have to add http://update.microsoft.com in trusted zone of IE (security level must be high) and to modify config file of ProxHTTPSProxy in the way I described above. Without these modifications I had problems to open MU site randomly using Microsoft Update shortcut in my start menu. For me it is now working flawlessly. Look at my screenshot! https://imgur.com/2Nr0xEi

I agree to @xpandvistafan. You have to avoid https-links to open Microsoft Update. If you want to access MU directly try http://fe2.update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=de (I am German), for you http://fe2.update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en. And you have to check config.ini of ProxHTTPSProxy. Under section [SSL No-Verify] I added fe2.update.microsoft.com and deleted update.microsoft.com under sections [SSL Pass-Thru] and [BYPASS URL]. This is working for me although I use predominantly HTTPSProxy. If wanted I can provide my config file of ProxHTTPSProxy.

I know but in my system it didn't work. Either I have to disable sfc or I have to cut off sfc fetching an old wuaueng.dll file from \i386. I have an imaging system for backing up partitions so I am glad to disable sfc. No old system files anymore without my permission!

@maile3241 The cmd file is a batch file. You can add in first line a path command for example "path c:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\" or "set path c:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\", If you add more than one path you have to separate by semicolon e. g. "path c:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\; c:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\". In Windows XP you can set global paths. Look here: https://cs.calvin.edu/courses/cs/112/resources/installingEclipse/path/

wmic.exe is a WMI command-line program. Maybe you have to set a path to where it is located in your system (path command). I have it twice in c:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\ and c:\WINDOWS\system32\dllcache\. Usually these paths already exist.

In my opinion this cmd file is not working properly. So I decided to disable sfc to do it manually where the batch file fails. You can do registry manipulation by reg file (copy the section in cmd file to reg file) and apply all patches which were executed. I did it and it works. I think this file has to be executed as admin.

@maile3241 Once more, thanks for your great help! Glad it works for you too and I could help a bit. It wasn't easy to find the cause of my error codes (I had a lot of them) but my guess to edit config.ini of HTTPSProxy was correct. I have checked a lot of registry entries and files. Now I have tested Microsoft Update site several times and it works flawlessly. It found one update missing and I could install it from there. See my screenshot https://imgur.com/oAO72vT

Hello to all. First thanks all for your help! I've examined what was going wrong in my system. I found out that the patch in Restore_WU_XP_2003.7z didn't work in my system due to system file protection. The file wuaueng.dll was replaced by sfc. So I patched my sfc_os.dll in folder system32 to disable sfc. Here is a working instruction: After that patching I put the patched sfc_os.dll in both folder system32 and system32\dllcache. Now I was able to copy manually wuaueng.dll in both folders. But that was not enough. To get Microsoft Update working you have to edit config.ini in ProxHTTPSProxy or HTTPSProxy shown in my screenshot. Now it works and I can use Microsoft Update in my Internet Explorer. See my screenshot! https://imgur.com/CmN76Au https://imgur.com/re8X4cH

Well, I did all steps without any success. I tried ProxHTTPSProxy instead of HTTPSProxy, imported ca.cert and so on. I get different error codes dependent on entries in ProxHTTPSProxy's config.ini. @xpandvistafan Did you change these settings? What am I missing?

Ok, I've merged the reg file into my registry. The first two entries have been already there, only the key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\WinHttp was missing. After restarting my computer when searching updates I get a new error code 0x80244004. Additionally I tried to modify the entries [SSL No-Verify] and [SSL Pass-Thru] of HTTPSProxy's config.ini without final success. Can you provide your entries in ProxHTTPSProxy's config.ini? And did you patch anything else or have you imported additional certificates? Here is my screenshot with error code 0x80244004: https://imgur.com/yDfXPOc

I have reinstalled these four updates flawlessly. I get a fully loaded Microsoft Update site using HTTPSProxy (that's very good ) but when searching updates I get error code 0x80072F78 again. I tried to load it a several times. See my screenshot https://imgur.com/xOfqchc

Ok, I've corrected that. I already said this thread is a bit confusing. Now I can see a fully loaded Microsoft Update site using HTTPSProxy. Without HTTPSProxy it doesn't work. But when searching updates I get error code 0x80072F78. See my screenshots https://imgur.com/nO9N9kh https://imgur.com/OGBN3qb

Hello, thanks for reply. I've already added these sites to Trusted Zone of IE and set security level to high. No chance. When you set security level to high Active scripting is disabled and Microsoft Update site can't install plugins meaning MU can't go on. Here a screenshot: https://imgur.com/o4P8B95

All these updates I had installed when they were offered via MU. I have the most recent root certificates updated by CAupdater and all updates incl. POSReady updates. But Microsoft Update doesn't work in IE. When Active scripting is enabled Microsoft Update is looping between http://fe2.update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=de and http://fe2.update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx. Without Active scripting no loop back but then you'll get Error number: 0x8DDD0001 like this: https://imgur.com/6jHMuyq