I like WinXP very much and am still using it.
On 2014/11/11 I could still get Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool and other Office Updates.

But when trying to access Microsoft Updates site since yesterday I got Error number: 0x80248015 with following message:
The website has encountered a problem and cannot display the page you are trying to view. The options provided below might help you solve the problem.

Does it mean Microsoft has finally closed the Updates site for all WinXP users? Or is it only me?

Thanks for your comments.
 

You're not the only one. It's related to v7.6.7600.257 of the file MUWeb.dll in %WinDir%\system32. To restore access to the Microsoft Update website, r256 must be used for now. We don't know Microsoft's reason for this change yet.

Edited November 22, 201411 yr by 5eraph

Thank you so much 5eraph for your prompt response.

I have downgraded muweb.dll to version 7.6.7600.256, reregisted it with Regsvr32, but firstly I got “404 - File or directory not found”, then after second reboot it worked!

In this case, what is your or anyone else opinion on using POSReady hack to WinXP?

From what I've read, the same "broken" update issue applies to all versions of XP including POSReady.  Using the r256 version of MUWeb.dll solves it for now, AFAIK.

 

Cheers and Regards

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2850890/windows-update-is-broken-on-xp.html

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A number of search engine provided fixes did not work for me. What did work, on all three machines, was this:

1. Stop the Automatic Updates service and the Background Intelligent Transfer Service

2. Rename the SoftwareDistribution sub-folder in the C:\Windows folder

3. Start the two services

That's the good news.

The bad news is that this only works for one go-round with Windows Update. Thus, I had to do this before running Windows Update every time. It wasn't hard to find other reports of the same problem, and this trick has, apparently, not helped everyone. If I hear of a permanent fix, or at least an explanation, I'll update this blog.

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You're not the only one. It's related to v7.6.7600.257 of the file MUWeb.dll in %WinDir%\system32. To restore access to the Microsoft Update website, r256 must be used for now. We don't know Microsoft's reason for this change yet.

This works.

@Nomen - you really don't want to do that anyway.

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/173049-windowsmicrosoft-update-not-working-on-windows-2000xp2003/#entry1089385

 

Maybe Michael Horowitz should.

If I hear of a permanent fix, or at least an explanation, I'll update this blog.

It seems that even New Users on MSFN are smarter than the rest of the world.

Edited November 24, 201411 yr by submix8c

refer to this thread:

 

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/173049-windowsmicrosoft-update-not-working-on-windows-2000xp2003/#entry1089383