Windows Update regresses infinitely

[JonF]

My son has a Toshiba laptop with Windows Home SP1 with all critical updates and IE 6.0 SP1 with all updates.

For about the last two months, whenever he goes to Windows Update he gets the normal "Scan for updates" page, scans, and is informed that there are some updates for Windows XP. When he clicks on "Windows XP" in the left-hand frame (to see what the updates are) he gets a copy of the entire "Scan for updates" page, all three frames, in the right-hand frame. If he clicks on "Scan for updates" in this miniature version, he gets the same information in the left frame of the miniature version and, if he clicks on "Windows XP" in this he gets ... a third and smaller version of the entier "Scan for updates" page in the right-hand frame of the page in the right-hand frame of the top window! I assume this will go on forever ...

I'm usually pretty resourceful, but this one has me buffaloed. Any ideas?

[Sunil]

tuff, you should try and do a reinstall, this does not remove any of your files or so on, but instead reinstalls windows, this may prove to be the solution you are looking for.....

Sunil

[Tinker]

You can try reloading V4 which is the program that you load when you first go to Win Update. To do this you must first delete the existing V4 file..

Clear the Contents of the Windows Update Folder

1] Click Start, click Programs, and then click Windows Explorer.

2] In the left pane, double-click the Program Files folder.

3] In the left pane, double-click the Windows Update folder.

4] In the right pane, click the V4 folder, click Edit, and then click Invert Selection.

5] Press DELETE, and then click Yes to confirm.

READ THE NOTE BEFORE DOING THIS STEP!

6] Open the V4 folder, then in the right pane, click to select the IUHIST.XML file, click Edit, and then click Invert Selection.

7] Press DELETE, and then click Yes to confirm.

Note:

When you delete the IUHIST.XML file from the Windows Update folder, you clear the whole Windows Update installation history. Microsoft does not recommend that you do this because you lose your record of previous downloads. The steps in this section delete all your files except the IUHIST.XML file.

Source: M$ KB Q193385

After this is done simply go to Windows update and allow V4 to be loaded again...

I hope this helps.

[Cuervo]

You can try reloading V4 which is the program that you load when you first go to Win Update. To do this you must first delete the existing V4 file..

        Clear the Contents of the Windows Update Folder

1] Click Start, click Programs, and then click Windows Explorer.

2] In the left pane, double-click the Program Files folder.

3] In the left pane, double-click the Windows Update folder.

4] In the right pane, click the V4 folder, click Edit, and then click Invert Selection.

5] Press DELETE, and then click Yes to confirm.

        READ THE NOTE BEFORE DOING THIS STEP!

6] Open the V4 folder, then in the right pane, click to select the IUHIST.XML file, click Edit, and then click Invert Selection.

7[ Press DELETE, and then click Yes to confirm.

Note:

When you delete the IUHIST.XML file from the Windows Update folder, you clear the whole Windows Update installation history. Microsoft does not recommend that you do this because you lose your record of previous downloads. The steps in this section delete all your files except the IUHIST.XML file.

Source: M$ KB Q193385

After this is done simply go to Windows update and allow V4 to be loaded again...

I hope this helps.

I did this and for some reason all it did was add the temp folders and the txt and cab files back in to the v4 folder. I still can't get it to update.

[Tinker]

Cuervo have you checked the source link in the post? There are a couple of other ideas there to try.

[Cuervo]

Yeah, I got it working. Others can see the windows script thread for my solution.

Thanks!