What were the updates about?
I noticed two recommended updates of .net2 sp2 dating way back 2011.
All of the updates were for .NET.
Using a base-line VM means a static Windows install -- it doesn't have the hundreds of small changes you get just booting Windows, let alone changes from actually using Windows to do anything. If there's an update problem after running this static install for 13 days without a problem, seems logical the problem's with the Update site rather than any individual copy of Windows. Why would the Update site change? I can only guess, but maybe because they were trying to fix the problem with KB2604110, perhaps along with other, similar problems people have been reporting. Here's the full story -- Apologizing in advance because this is bound to be boring...
The original problem child was KB2604110 from this May in my regular XP Pro SP3 install -- it would report it installed correctly every time, but then Windows Update would almost immediately show I needed to update/add the same hotfix all over again. I used Universal Extractor on the download, tried to manually install the extracted .msp file etc. but didn't have any luck. Back in win7 I fired up the old version of my XP Mode VM [without the May updates applied] & ran just the KB2604110 update while monitoring all changes, then compared the results with my regular XP install -- maybe because I've added .NET 4 to that regular install, every file updated by that hotfix was already a higher version number than what was included in the hotfix. I figured the update process wouldn't replace a newer file with an older version, & that Windows/Microsoft Update was looking for the hotfix version numbers, & hadn't been written to recognize higher versions. At that point I decided to simply hide the update at the Microsoft Update site, & wait & see if the KB was updated or a fix became available -- since I only boot into XP briefly 1 or 2 times a week I wasn't all that concerned about it.
Then this last weekend I was poking around http://answers.microsoft.com -- search there for "repeatedly tries to install" or similar & you'll see the problem is not unheard of. If you go to http://support.microsoft.com/kb/910339 there's a Fix it pop-up as soon as the page opens -- there's also a different Fix it applet on the page... None of the Fix it applets cured the problem, though they did succeed in breaking the Microsoft Update site for me -- restoring a ERUNT registry backup got things working again. On that KB/910339 page there's a link: "971058" that takes you to support.microsoft.com/kb/971058 . That page also has a couple of Fix it applets, & if you click the link: "Click here to view or hide detailed information" it'll show the individual steps to reset Update manually from the command line -- I was out of time so I didn't/haven't tried that. AT any rate, the only posts I saw where people claimed success were where they uninstalled .NET, ran the dotnetfx_cleanup_tool [Google/Bing or search the answer site etc. for the blog post with the latest version], then reinstalled .NET & all the updates -- quite a while ago I'd been there, done that, it takes forever & I Don't want to go back if I can help it.
Having wasted a couple, few hours, that's where I was on this mess when I fired up the XP Mode VM yesterday. I use a very minimal XP Pro SP3 setup -- since I use it to monitor software installs with before/after snapshots [using the free Install Watch Pro] I want it as lean as possible. To keep it that way I run 1 copy & save 2 base copies of the 3 files making up the VM [3 copies total] -- whenever I add an update I'll save the base-line VM, keep the previous copy, & delete the oldest. Then before I use the XP Mode VM I'll copy/paste the newer base-line version over the one I run. I'd been running the XP Mode VM that way since Update Tuesday, May 8th, every day firing up the base-line version, updating Microsoft Security Essentials, checking updates etc. before I fired up InstallWatch Pro & created the Before snapshot -- Monday, 5/21, it showed the 3 older updates for the 1st time, they all reported that they installed OK, but as soon as they installed, Microsoft Update wanted to install them again -- the updates were/are: KB2633880, KB2572073, KB2518864. They'd all been installed in the past, & the file versions they contained were mostly older than those installed already.
Note that I encountered this problem before I did any installations, & that Monday's GOTD from Wondershare itself may cause 3 updates to show up -- far as I know not a problem, but didn't want anyone assuming those updates were part of the same, sort of false positive affair.
Note 2, just in case anyone's curious: Win7's Virtual PC can save changes to a separate file, leaving the base VM mostly untouched. Why then bother with the extra copies? Mainly because when I've done it that way, deleting the changes means the VM won't start with all the add-ons the 1st time afterwards, so I have to log in etc., then shut it down, then start it up again, which all takes just a slight bit longer than a copy/paste with the 3 VM files.
