Microsoft update with Office 2003 painfully slow!

I recently built several virtual PCs with Windows XP Pro. When I ran Windows
Update, it performed well. Then I installed Office 2003 and Microsoft
Update. Microsoft update either takes hours to complete or fails completely
stating that there was an unknown error.

I found a blog article at
http://blogs.technet.com/wsus/archiv...update-on.aspx that referred
to a couple of patches. I downloaded and installed the patches on half of
the virtual PCs and it worked well enough. Update was still much slower than
I thought it should be but at least it wasn't an all day affair per PC.

So, today I get back to the rest of those virtual PCs and try the same
patches. The second of the two patches, when I try to install it, now tells
me that the update cannot be installed because it is already installed. And
I get about a 1/3 success rate running Microsoft update. When it runs, the
progress bar never displays the moving green bar. There is no indication of
anything going on except cpu usage staying at 100% about 90% of the time with
a few short drops down into normal or less than 100% range.

Microsoft update has become so useless and untrustworthy that it is worse
than useless. I am spending more time running Microsoft update than I am
getting any work done on those PCs.

Any ideas on how to get it working?

Thanks,

Dale
--
Dale Preston
MCAD C#
MCSE, MCDBA

Dale <> wrote:

> So, today I get back to the rest of those virtual PCs and try the same
> patches. The second of the two patches, when I try to install it,
> now tells me that the update cannot be installed because it is
> already installed. And I get about a 1/3 success rate running
> Microsoft update. When it runs, the progress bar never displays the
> moving green bar. There is no indication of anything going on except
> cpu usage staying at 100% about 90% of the time with a few short
> drops down into normal or less than 100% range.

Before doing the items below, ensure that you have disabled all 3rd-party
anti-virus, anti-spyware, popup-blocker, download accelerator, or firewall.
If you disabled a 3rd-party firewall, then re-enable Windows Firewall for
the duration.

For 32-bit systems, download and save to hard disk, and then install:
<http://download.windowsupdate.com/v7/windowsupdate/redist/standalone/WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe>

If this produces an error message about "Update agent already
installed", then execute the installer again manually, with parameter
/wuforce as in (at a Windows cmd.exe prompt window):

WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe /wuforce

Then visit Microsoft Update again, and report back whether your problem is
fixed.

--
Robin Walker [MVP Networking]

Thanks, Robin. I had already followed pretty much the same instructions as
you gave when I had the problem. What fixed it was your suggestion to use
the /wuforce switch on the command line.

Thank you very much for your help!

Dale
--
Dale Preston
MCAD C#
MCSE, MCDBA


"Robin Walker [MVP]" wrote:

> Dale <> wrote:
>
> > So, today I get back to the rest of those virtual PCs and try the same
> > patches. The second of the two patches, when I try to install it,
> > now tells me that the update cannot be installed because it is
> > already installed. And I get about a 1/3 success rate running
> > Microsoft update. When it runs, the progress bar never displays the
> > moving green bar. There is no indication of anything going on except
> > cpu usage staying at 100% about 90% of the time with a few short
> > drops down into normal or less than 100% range.
>
> Before doing the items below, ensure that you have disabled all 3rd-party
> anti-virus, anti-spyware, popup-blocker, download accelerator, or firewall.
> If you disabled a 3rd-party firewall, then re-enable Windows Firewall for
> the duration.
>
> For 32-bit systems, download and save to hard disk, and then install:
> <http://download.windowsupdate.com/v7/windowsupdate/redist/standalone/WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe>
>
> If this produces an error message about "Update agent already
> installed", then execute the installer again manually, with parameter
> /wuforce as in (at a Windows cmd.exe prompt window):
>
> WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe /wuforce
>
> Then visit Microsoft Update again, and report back whether your problem is
> fixed.
>
> --
> Robin Walker [MVP Networking]
>
>
>
>