"403 - Forbidden: Access is denied" Error on Windows Server 2003

A machine running Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition SP2 recently began
yielding the error "403 - Forbidden: Access is denied." whenever Microsoft
Update is browsed on the machine. This occurred after a recent Microsoft
Update was attempted on the machine. The machine's host file and proxy
settings have not been modified in any way and are the same as before the
error was encountered. Other machines on the same network that also run
versions of Windows Server 2003 have not experienced the error. The error
occurrence is seemingly out of the blue and totally unexpected. Microsoft
Update cannot be browsed at this time on the machine. Any advice concerning
how to rectify this problem would be greatly appreciated.

Ron Sochanski wrote:

> A machine running Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition SP2 recently began
> yielding the error "403 - Forbidden: Access is denied." whenever Microsoft
> Update is browsed on the machine. This occurred after a recent Microsoft
> Update was attempted on the machine. The machine's host file and proxy
> settings have not been modified in any way and are the same as before the
> error was encountered. Other machines on the same network that also run
> versions of Windows Server 2003 have not experienced the error. The error
> occurrence is seemingly out of the blue and totally unexpected. Microsoft
> Update cannot be browsed at this time on the machine. Any advice concerning
> how to rectify this problem would be greatly appreciated.

Ron,

How to read the Windowsupdate.log file
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/902093

The most recent entries are at the *bottom* of the log. What your
looking for are FATAL and/or WARNING entries that contain error codes.

QEDs:
1) Does the system update automatically ?
2) Which version of Internet Explorer ?

You could try manually installing the latest release of the Windows
Update Agent to see if that resolves the issue:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949104

Download and *save* the WUA. If possible, save or move the download so
it's *not* on the root drive.

Close all open programs or browsers.
Stop the Automatic Updates service and, if the BITS service has started,
stop that, too.
Then run the .exe and reboot the system.

MowGreen
===============
*-343-* FDNY
Never Forgotten
===============

banthecheck.com
"Security updates should *never* have *non-security content* prechecked"

I got this error on an XP Laptop and solved it by downloading and running ?windowsupdateagent30-x86.exe? from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949104.



Ron Sochanski wrote:

"403 - Forbidden: Access is denied" Error on Windows Server 2003
25-Sep-09

A machine running Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition SP2 recently began
yielding the error "403 - Forbidden: Access is denied." whenever Microsoft
Update is browsed on the machine. This occurred after a recent Microsoft
Update was attempted on the machine. The machine's host file and proxy
settings have not been modified in any way and are the same as before the
error was encountered. Other machines on the same network that also run
versions of Windows Server 2003 have not experienced the error. The error
occurrence is seemingly out of the blue and totally unexpected. Microsoft
Update cannot be browsed at this time on the machine. Any advice concerning
how to rectify this problem would be greatly appreciated.

EggHeadCafe - Software Developer Portal of Choice
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I know this is an old thread but I wanted to chime in because the solution here did not help me.


I had this error on SBS 2003. When installing the Windows Update 3.0 Client it would fail with install failed 0x80070020 error. This is also the error code I would receive at the Windows Updates site when trying to scan for updates. Examining the WindowsUpdate.log file in C:\WINDOWS showed this recent error- Error 0x80070020 preparing file C:\WINDOWS\system32\wups2.dll



I renamed C:\Windows\System32\wups2.dll to wups2.dll.old then copied wups2.dll from a different 2003 server to C:\Windows\System32 and went back to Windows Update site and everything was working.



I hope this can be of use to someone in the future!



Mike