Robert_Charlton - 6:08 am on Jun 5, 2012 (gmt 0)

Thanks.

However, you now say that you have this installed and the problem has stopped?

For this particular combination on this particular go-round, yes.

Yesterday (Sunday), MS started prompting me to download KB2718704, a new update, and I thought I'd wait a while. I'm already seeing two posts on Microsoft Answers forum, to the effect of...

When it tries to install the update KB2718704 it repeatedly fails to install it.

So I'm frankly afraid to update, because I really don't have a lot of time to waste on this. I'm waiting for other reports.

I did some searching around the MS forum and found many references to essentially the same problem for other updates. From what I read, it is apparently a systemic MS problem which most MS Tech Support people know nothing about... and it's not confined to Windows XP. (I'm still using XP until I can find a chunk of time migrate to Windows 7 on a new, yet-to-be-built, 64-bit machine).

I did come across the following, though, which suggests that someone at MS is aware of the problem. I believe the section I'm quoting describes the core of the problem, at least in broad terms. Unfortunately, since they're no longer "supporting" XP, this won't help, but it might be of interest to Windows 7 and Vista users, etc....

System Update Readiness Tool
Article ID: 947821 - Last Review: April 30, 2012 - Revision: 20.0
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947821 [support.microsoft.com]

This article describes the System Update Readiness Tool for Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows 7. You may become unable to install updates from Windows Update, due to inconsistencies in file data or registry data. By installing the System Update Readiness Tool, you can resolve these inconsistencies and you will be able to install updates from Windows Update. After the System Update Readiness Tool is installed, install updates again from Windows Update.

So, it seems that in part of Microsoft it's a known issue on almost all recent MS operating systems. If there's any pipeline anyone's reading that discusses the latest update, or finds a similar solution for XP, I'd love to hear about it.

See also...

Auto-Update Failure...
[answers.microsoft.com...]

Unable to install updates...
[support.microsoft.com...]