Windows Update 126 error

I've had a problem with svchost.exe that was preventing me from booting up Windows XP normally. Couple this with malware infection and I've only been able to access windows via safe mode. I think the system was infected and during a Windows Update the file may have been corrupted.

After going through the malware protocols and postings the machine has apparently been cleaned of the malware (see: http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=1655034#post1655034 ), and I've finally been able to boot up windows normally. However, I'm still having an issue with Automatic Updates -- they are unable to be started.

I get the error message 126 when trying to turn on automatic updates via services.msc

BITS via services.msc is started.

Via web updater I get a message similar to this:

"Files required to use Windows Update are no longer registered or installed on your computer. To continue:

Register or reinstall the files for me now (Recommended)
Let me read about more steps that might be required to solve the problem"

But I'm unable to proceed beyond this. If anyone has any suggestions on what I might be able to do to correct this error it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Try running a SFC scan to see if it fixes the problem...

Click Start>>In ‘Start Search’ type cmd, then right-click cmd and click Run as administrator

At the command prompt type sfc /scannow and press enter
(note there is a space between sfc and forward slash)

When the SFC scan is complete test to see if you can update

 

Done scan and the same error appears.

Any other ideas?

 

Try one of these solutions...

Method 1: Register the Msxml3.dll file
To register the Msxml3.dll file, click Start, click Run, type regsvr32 msxml3.dll, and then click OK two times


Method 2: Register the Windows Update .dll files
To resolve this issue, register the Windows Update .dll files and then try again to connect to the Windows Update Web site. To register the Windows Update .dll files, follow these steps:
Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
At the command prompt, type regsvr32 wuapi.dll, and then press ENTER.
At the command prompt, type regsvr32 wuaueng.dll, and then press ENTER.
At the command prompt, type regsvr32 wuaueng1.dll, and then press ENTER.
At the command prompt, type regsvr32 wucltui.dll, and then press ENTER.
At the command prompt, type regsvr32 wups.dll, and then press ENTER.
At the command prompt, type regsvr32 wups2.dll, and then press ENTER.
At the command prompt, type regsvr32 wuweb.dll, and then press ENTER.
Try to connect to the Windows Update Web site again.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/946413

 

Also try running Microsoft Update from http://www.update.microsoft.com/ instead of Windows Update; it may reinstall the updater software.

 

I worked through all the commands and I still cannot get the service to start.

From the Internet Explorer page I receive the following message:

"Files required to use Windows Update are no longer registered or installed on your computer. To continue:


Register or reinstall the files for me now (Recommended)
Let me read about more steps that might be required to solve the problem"


After selecting register or reinstall... I get a server error. 403 - forbidden: Access is denied.

"You do not have permission to view this directory or page using the credentials that you supplied."


As far as I know the account that I am on has admin. privileges as it is the only account that is accessible from normal startup (safe mode has a second "administrator" account inaccessible from normal mode). Also, the version of windows installed on this computer should be legit (it came with the computer).

Any other ideas?

 

Alright, I think I have finally resolved the issue.

From the following forum:

http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.co...t-working-clients-xp-pro-refer-c-windows.html


I followed the steps (second part of the suggestion):

"http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/troubleshoot/
Windows Update Troubleshooter.
Select a category below to get help on resolving your issue.
Want to search this content fast? On the menu bar above, click "Find" on the "Edit" menu and
type a word or phrase to search for.
Problem reaching Windows Update
Problem Downloading/Installing a Software (Non-Driver) item
Problem Downloading/Installing a Driver
Other

Or ,

1. Download This File to your desktop
http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.co...ansi/iuctl.cab

2. Go to the desktop and right click the iuctl.cab file.

3. Click "Extract to."

4. Point to a known location (like the desktop) and click "OK."

5. Go to the location you selected and right click on the iuctl.inf file.

6. Click "Install."

Reboot , now try."



And this last post in the thread:


I realize this is a really old thread, but this thread is the first i came across so I am going to add the fix that worked for me on a couple different machines.

I have seen this error with automatic updates service if the system root folder i WINNT instead of windows...if this is the case then open Regedit and go to HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\wuauserv

ImagePath = %systemroot%\system32\....
needs to be changed to:

ImagePath = C:\WINNT\system32\...

then restart the machine and automatic updates should now be started



After rebooting I was able to start Automatic Updates no fail. I suspect that the registry key was the issue - gauging from the responses in the thread, I'm not sure if the first fix did anything or not as I only rebooted after doing both, not each time.


Note: the following key was changed via regedit using the Run services;

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\wuauserv

ImagePath = %systemroot%\system32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs

to

ImagePath = C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs

(Which I confirmed is the path where svchost.exe currently resides.)

If anyone has any feedback on this issue, I'd appreciate the comments.

 

Update:

I restored HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\wuauserv

ImagePath = C:\WINDOWS\system32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs

to

ImagePath = %systemroot%\system32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs

rebooted, and was able to download updates. In addition after stopping and restarting the service no errors came up. It appears that the pathing issue has been resolved and I'm going to leave the path restored to the original statement.

If anyone else has any comments, feel free to post.