When I go to Windows update site, I get a "New Windows Update Software Required" message. When I click the "Update Now" button, it just goes back to the "New Windows Update Software Required" message again. This will go on all day, if I let it.

What am I doing wrong.

First time here. Hope you guys can help. Thanks so much.

threadyourneedle, welcome to the pool! What I would do is go online and click into this link: http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp From there you should be able to scan for updates and it will then show you the updated packets that your machine does not have yet. You can then select and download them. If that doesn't work, please post again and let us know what happened.

thx

Thanks for your quick response kwll. I went to that page but found out it is the page I was at before and I get the same problem: Clicking the "Update Now" button just results in the same page being displayed, making it impossible to perform the update.

Any other suggestions?

threadyourneedle:

Try this:

Drag your mouse to Start\Run & type in the open space:

wupdmgr.exe

& then drag your mouse over & click OK

If this does not bring up the Windows Update window you will have to use the SFC & restore the Wupdmgr.exe file.

Donald

Interesting, the same thing is happening with my back up, an ME machine. I am sure threadyourneedle and I know how to get to the update page, but something is preventing the downloading of the microsoft software that allows updates to be downloaded and installed. I believe this occurred when one of the recent worms/trojans breached the update website. Microsoft did some stuff to be sure we all are safely able to download the updates. In my case, when I try to install the update software (not the updates themselves), I get the notice that the software is not digitally signed. I am trying to do a search of the Microsoft support sites for help in this matter. Hmm, just had a thought, it may be caused by the security setting of Internet Explorer concerning digital signatures. Will get back to you in a jiffy, have to boot up the old dog!!
Nope, no help, will continue to search Microsoft for help

According to Microsoft. they are "researching" the problem. They have a couple of "maybe" fixes that I tried with no luck. Anyone else have a shot at this?

I attempted to update my other XP machine last night and it basically locked up on the website and never did start a download. Must be something with the MS servers?!

I tried a few days ago and got a message telling me that there was a problem with the update page.

Thank you everyone for your considerations.
I will just have to be patient and hope that microsoft fixes the problem

My feeling is that the problem is not at Microsoft's end. Try the following procedure.

Click Start, Run, type Regsvr32 -U IUCTL.DLL and press Enter. Click OK to dismiss the success dialog.

Open Internet Explorer, then click Tools, Internet Options, Settings, and View Objects. Right-click Update Class, then click Remove and Yes. Close the folder, then click OK and OK.

Use Find (or Search) to locate IUCTL.DLL and IUENGINE.DLL in the Windows\System (or System32) folder. Right-click each file and click Delete (and Yes if prompted).

Visit Windows Update to reinstall the software.

No luck with that Tom. I now get a message about Win 2000 and XP needing administrator rights! I am using Win ME.

Add windowsupdate.microsoft.com to the Trusted Sites list. In the Trusted Sites security settings, set "Download signed ActiveX controls" to Prompt; enable "Run ActiveX controls...", "Script ActiveX controls...", "File download", and "Active scripting". On visiting Windows Update, you should be prompted to install the new control.

Thanks again everyone. Got the critical update message again and this time it downloaded fine. Microsoft must have fixed the problem.