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(WAU) Windows Automatic Updates fail after XP Repair Installation

This page is thanks to http://www.vincentverhagen.nl/2007/09/25/windows-automatic-update-fails-after-xp-repair/. I've replicated the content in case the other page goes offline.

Following a Repair installation of Windows XP, the Automatic Update (WAU) function runs but each of the updates fail.

The problem reported is something very general, like “Problem: A problem on your computer is preventing updates from being downloaded or installed” or something along those lines. On the computer I used, there was no error message, just "Failed".

What has happened, it that for some reason some components (DLL’s) of WAU aren’t “registered” anymore. To fix this, copy the text below, do a “Start -> Run” and type “cmd” and Enter, and paste the text into the cmd text box that should appear. For every line a window will pop up, saying the the DLL was registered. Restart your computer and WAU should work fine.

The lines below assume that Windows XP is installed in C:\WINDOWS. If yours is in C:\WINNT or any other, change the lines accordingly.

Alternatively, use this simple batch file (enclosed in a RAR compressed file)

wauregserv.rar

Again, thanks to http://www.vincentverhagen.nl/

KEYWORDS

windows, xp, repair, automatic, update, fail, wau, install