I have four computers I take care of for various friends and relatives,
all running Windows XP Pro. None of them had been updated since May or
earlier because I was unhappy about the circumstances of the KB905744
update situation. However, after reading about the importance of
installing the critical security update KB921883, I decided it was time
to apply at least some of the recent updates.
Using Windows Update, two of the computers required the latest version
of KB892130, the WGA validation tool, to be installed before they would
show me the rest of the updates. The other two computers both failed to
find any updates, finishing with the error message 0xddd0009 which
several other posters have complained about.
I searched for information about this error message and found several
suggestions for fixing it. I tried all of the suggestions on one of the
computers, but to no avail. I note that I am not the only one who has
reached this dead end on this problem, and I have yet to see an
authoritative solution from any of the usually knowledgeable and helpful
MS-MVPs in this newsgroup.
I have found a workaround which corrected the problem and let me install
updates. It wasn't a choice I liked, but it was better than doing
nothing. I temporarily changed the update setting from "manual" to
"Download but do not install updates". Both computers which had been
giving this error downloaded a bunch of updates.
One of them then gave me the tray icon stating "updates have been
downloaded and are ready to install." I clicked to start the
installation and chose the advanced mode rather than automatic. It gave
me a list of updates and allowed me to de-select KB905744. After the
updates were installed, I changed the update setting back to "manual"
and "hid" the KB905744 update.
The other computer did not give me the "updates ready" tray icon.
However, when I went to shut it down, the normal "shutdown" icon was
replaced with "apply updates and shutdown" and "shutdown without
applying updates". I had never heard of or seen this before. In any
case, I clicked on "apply updates and shutdown". It went to the shutdown
screen and informed me of the progress of the update installations until
they were complete, and then finished shutting down.
When I restarted this computer, I had a tray icon "update ready to
install". Again I chose the advanced mode and it showed me that it
wanted to install KB905744. I deselected the update, changed the update
setting back to manual, and hid the KB905744 update in Windows Update.
I'm not sure why this computer didn't blindly install KB905744 along
with all the other updates, but I have a theory. KB905744 is identified
as Beta software and there is an EULA that must be accepted before it
will install. I think this may be why it didn't install during the
"apply updates and shutdown" sequence. Whatever the reason, I'm very
glad it didn't install.
I make it a practice to never install Beta software unless there is a
very good reason to do so. Given the fact that there have been reports
of KB905744 erroneously identifying some Windows XP installations as
invalid, I will not install it as long as I have that option.
--
Please reply in this newsgroup. I never post my true
email address to prevent spam. Thank you.
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