[Ham-Computers] Automatic Update on XP

[jandlmiller at bellsouth.net]

On my XP Media Center laptop I have Automatic Updates turned on.  There is, in the systray, an icon with golden shield and exclamation mark indicating that an update is ready for my computer.  When I run my cursor over this icon it tells me all of this, of course.

I click on the icon and a window pops up asking, "How do you want to install updates" with a default of a tick mark (radio button) for "Express Install (Recommended)."  Now, if I change the tick to "Custom Install (Advanced)" and select "Next >" a listing of updates ready for installation, and the related sizes, appears. Then I can the Install or Cancel button.  All of this is very vanilla and very normal.  Right now the Desktop is what I see on the monitor and the little golden jewel is in the systray.

When I just used Custom to see the list waiting installation, the only one there is "Security Update for SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 4 (KB948110) at 10.3 MB.  My first question for myself was why does this update have anything to do with me, but I had no answer except that stranger things have happened, so I click the icon (left or right, it doesn't care) and the dialog window again appears with the default to Express Install, and I select Install.  A window pops up confirming the installation is underway.  Then the window says that some of the updates could not be installed, and says that the Security Update referenced above was not installed.  I select close.

The window closes and the icon disappears from my systray for a few minutes, and then it returns to the systray in a few minutes.

This scenario has been repeated over the last few days.

Is there a way to either install what needs to be, or get rid of what is causing the icon to say that something is waiting to be installed that can't be?

John W0IKT