Windows update thinks my PC is a MAC!?

I just tried to go to windows update and I now get a page that thanks me for looking for updates but that Windows Update only works with for machines running the Windows OS!!! It then refers me to a page for updates for Microsoft products for Macintosh's!! The only Apple related application I run on this machine is iTunes with Quick Time. Nothing has changed since the last time I ran Windows Update. I thought it was a problem with my version of IE so I upgraded from 6 to 7 beta and still get the same message. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

HI!
Is THIS what you see?





I get it when I'm using Firefox.
This is what I get with IE:

 

Not even this page. The one I get has the same first line of text but the next line just refers me to a link on the Microsoft website for Mac application downloads. I am using the latest version of IE. I even checked to see if the system control panel was showing something weird for the OS - it shows Windows XP Home version 2002 with SP2.

 

Tim: The problem first appeared while I was using IE6. I loaded IE7 beta thinking it would help but the problem continued.

 

Hi again!
That is just 'too weird'. Do you have CCleaner?...if not, you can get it here.
http://majorgeeks.com/CCleaner_Slim_No_Yahoo_Toolbar_English_d4191.html

Run it and see if it helps. Leave it set up the way it comes and run the 'Cleaner' tab. Try Microsoft Update again http://update.microsoft.com/microsoftupdate/v6/default.aspx?ln=en-us and post back. OK? OK.

 

Here is the text from the error page I get...

Thank you for your interest in obtaining updates from our site.

This website is designed to work with Microsoft Windows operating systems only.
To find updates for Microsoft products that are designed for Macintosh operating systems, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/mac/.

 

OK, ran CCleaner and it didn't change anything. Tried system restore to a point about 3 weeks ago, no help. Installed the Firefox Windows Gen. Advantage plug in and Windows update tells me that I am not running IE, even though the windows website confirms proper installation of the plug in for Firefox. Everything else works fine except this!

 

I found this:

(The fix involves a reg edit)

or:

I'm not crazy about this solution, but it was all I could find. Maybe someone else can find something 'better'
Or if you try this and uninstall your 3rd party firewall and use Windows firewall just to get the updates, then reinstall the 3rd party firewall things will be set right. (she crosses her fingers)

 

Currently using Zone Alarm. Will try it without ZA...

 

Just throwing this out there, but I say a similar problem on the Office Update site, and the problem was "ghostsurf". Any proxies in use or similar software on the system?

 

Something else I found:

Have a look HERE: http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/troubleshoot/
It's where I'm finding this stuff.

 

OK, tried everything - uninstalled Zone Alarm, did the registry fix, installed the updated files, restarted PC and according to windows update, my PC is still a MAC! I'm at the point where it may be time to reload Windows XP and start over. One thing that came up was a recent installation of Shockwave Media Player that my daughter tried on my son's computer and got a PC vs. Mac message. I just did the same thing on this PC so uninstalled it as well. Still no help!

 

Also, when I just open IE and go to my Yahoo home page, Yahoo tells me to upgrade to a more recent version of my browser!! I go to the About IE menu choice and it tells me that I am running IE 6!

 

I'm sorry to hear nothing worked for you.
It sounds like you're really 'messed up' and unless someone else (which I would wait for) can suggest an alternate fix, like a reg clean or something, I would try a repair before a reinstall.

 

I appreciate everyone's help and suggestions. This is my first time on this forum and you have all been very helpful. I have something called Registry mechanic - would running that possible help?

 

you may want to try uninstall everything thats mac like the itunes and clean out the registry of mac products then go to windows update.

 

Running registry mechanic as we speak. Maybe something will come up. Did get a blue screen stop before all of this started this morning and chkdsk did "fix" some things but I would not know what it did or how to reverse them.

 

Scott: Good suggestion. I was considering the same thing. After I run Reg Mechanic I will probably try that.

 

A suggestion that might help.
Download / install / run Belarc Advisor.
Belarc Advisorhttp://www.majorgeeks.com/Belarc_Advisor_d1385.html

The Belarc Advisor builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware and displays the results in your Web browser. All of your PC profile information is kept private on your PC and is not sent to any web server.


Scroll down to "Installed Microsoft Hotfixes". Check if they all have ticks, or do some of them have a red cross against them. Any with a red cross will have to be uninstalled and downloaded again. Might help pinpoint a problem. Bazza

 

Good idea. Registry Mechanic ran and resolved over 500 "problems" but not the one I was looking for it to resolve. Also ran sfc /scannow and that didn't help either. Ran an IE6 repair and reinstall (find file ie.ifc and right click "install" with my XP CD in place) still the same.

 

Let us know if Belarc finds anything.
Check carefully all the updates, for ticks and crosses. Bazza

===

 

Just ran Belarc. What a great utility! It believes I have Windows XP Home SP2 and IE 6. The only hotfix with a red x was one I started to install today.

 

Halo: No Norton on this machine - running AVG free edition and was running Zone Alarm but uninstalled earlier today as I was chasing down this problem. Currently have Windows Firewall also turned off.

 

I get the feeling this is some registry quirk that has come up. Something is saying that my PC is a Mac. Another thing, the Firefox plug-in that allows you to use that browser to access windows update does not take. I can install it and the microsoft page that confirms its installation tells me it installed fine. Once I go to the windows update site, I get the same "...only works with IE...' blah blah blah.

 

Bump. Have you found a solution / solved the problem / still have a MAC? Bazza

 

Will have time this weekend to get back into this. Will try Halo and TimW's suggestions tomorrow and post results.

 

SOLVED, at least in my case, this may or may not be the cause for others.

In my case this was caused by Free Download Manager. The "Modify Internet Explorer's network identification" setting in General Settings in FDM was causing the userAgent string to come out weird in javascript. Windows Update must be relying on javascript for its userAgent check.

This site ultimately let me figure that out:
http://whatsmyuseragent.com/

It must use a method besides javascript to get the userAgent string because it had a much longer and more detailed one.

My userAgent string as reported by javascript is now:
"Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; User-agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; http://bsalsa.com) ; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727)"

But with that option in FDM turned on, it said "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0)". Notice that it says IE 6 and more importantly omits the Platform completely. Windows Update was looking for "Windows" in the userAgent string and getting nothing at all, and taking nothing to mean "Mac". Linux probably gets the same thing.

I don't know what the "User-agent: ...." part in the middle is, or why it says "http://http://bsalsa.com" but those don't seem to cause any problems.

The ".NET CLR ######" entries indicate .Net support, you may or may not have them, and they may have different numbers for different versions.

Instead of "Windows NT 5.1" (which is XP service pack 2) it may be "5.0" (for XP service pack 1) or "6.0" (for Vista).

If your problem is not the same, the string as reported by the site above might give you some clues where to look.