Block MS from calling home ;o)

This is interesting as i'm getting that on one machine, but not on others.

More than I ever wanted to know.... this from notes as I was trying to sort it out. I think Microsoft is in process of issuing a fix, but I'm not sure.

From a long discussion, one of several, on the Microsoft Answers forum. This one started about a year ago, with a bunch of activity on the same problem in the past few days....

Why could update KB2518864 not be installed?
[answers.microsoft.com...]

The problem has apparently been around, as one poster notes, "since the dawn of the .NET framework". Not all posters are discussing the same set of updates or precisely the same symptoms, but at the root they all appear to be the having variations of the same problem... that Windows Update/Microsoft Update on occasion prompts to install the same updates over and over, and other components in the update chain, including the MS Update site and Microsoft's FixIt scans, indicate no problems.

The canned post early on in the thread from the MS forum moderator, I should mention, gets called out by a poster who's been seeing this go on for a while....

The assessment is bogus....

...Now, when will Microsoft admit the problem and get around to fixing it?

The updates I'm having problems with are the most frequently mentioned recently, and they are KB2518864 and KB2572073 and KB2633880.

May 13, 2012

Those three (3) updates are superseded (replaced) by KB2604092; one dates from June 2011, another from October 2011 and another from February 2012.

There are two (2) possible explanations for this:

• .NET Framework 2 SP2 was installed sometime after 14 February 2012; or

• This problem actually started eleven (11) months ago.

Here's six pages of more up-to-date discussion...

Security updates KB2633880 & KB2633870 are not being installed or updated
[answers.microsoft.com...]

If KB2604092 is installed and KB2518864, KB2572073 and/or KB2633880 are being offered again, run a manual check for updates shortly after 10:00 AM Pacific/1:00 PM Eastern (17:00 UTC) today and see if they're still being offered.

[Looks like MS is about to rerelease KB2604092 today.]

As the thread goes on, Microsoft continued to deny the problem even as it was also appearing that they were gradually becoming aware of it. I tried visiting the MS Update site several times and running their scan there, getting messages each time that I was completely updated. Eventually, one of these "took" and I haven't seen the shield for a while. Seems to be the consensus on the second thread.

This is why I feel it's probably not good to Update right away.

I got the same notice three times today for .Net. First time it ever happened. After I noticed the second update was the same as the first, I simply ignored it.

Marshall

In the past, I've encountered Windows not letting me shut down a machine when "critical" updates were downloaded but not installed. I've seen Windows allow me to defer an installation for one or two or three shutdowns, but at some point not let me turn off or restart my machine until I actually installed the updates.

That was a potential problem here, I felt, and why I didn't think I could just ignore it. Parts of the "system" in the local machine didn't seem to be understanding what was happening... and in fact I was prompted to install at shutdown after I thought I'd installed this particular set.

A big concern was that if the machine wasn't recognizing the installation, I might not be able to do a reboot when I wanted to.

I don't think it's a security issue if all the files have been updated. MS just hasn't updated its Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) site appropriately.

Just go to the Windows Update site and check the box that says "Don't show this update again" for the problem updates.

Just go to the Windows Update site and check the box that says "Don't show this update again" for the problem updates.

bill - Either I'm not being clear enough in my description of the problem, or else I'm not understanding your reply. The Microsoft Update site wasn't where the problematic updates were being suggested, and I saw nothing there to check.

The problem appeared to be happening on my machine, where the updates, which had already been downloaded and I thought installed, weren't showing as installed. After each install, Windows (on my machine) was repeatedly prompting me to install the files again. It was not prompting me to download them.

At the Microsoft Update site, a scan indicated that there were no more Priority Updates to install, so the scan apparently was getting it right. Add/Remove programs in my Control Panel, though, wasn't showing any installations, and I didn't see any way to turn off the install suggestion. Please talk me through it, for future reference, if there is a way.

I wasn't concerned about a security issue. I was concerned about getting caught in an endless loop when I tried to shut down or reboot my machine. It happened to me once a few years ago.

I gathered from the MS threads that KB2604092 was a replacement for these three files, and that something was out of sync (more clear now than then). Some discussion on the first of the two above-cited Microsoft Answers threads suggested that the problem might be related to the registry. This apparently has been a long recurring problem.

At a certain point on May 22 the shield stopped appearing, for me and many others. I don't know what kind of button Microsoft may have pushed.

I'm seeing in Add/Remove programs on my machine that KB2604092 had been installed on May 10, and the only thing that was installed on May 22 was something called Windows PowerShell. Page 8 on the second Microsoft Answers thread suggests the problem was a fairly widespread. Amazingly, I can find no official word from MS about this.

Sorry for the confusion. I was parroting advice I'd heard elsewhere about this issue as I don't have any active XP installs to play with.

MS has really screwed this one up. I'm seeing reports all over about it, but no official word from MS.

The current advice if you're running Windows XP, is to take a pass on KB 2604092 [support.microsoft.com] (MS12-035) [technet.microsoft.com]

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

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...]