MSIE ActiveX issue (WinUpdate won't work til resolved)

I've got my cousin's WinXP laptop for the remainder of this month. He came by a few weeks ago to visit and mentioned a "problem" with his laptop (turned out to be more like ten, but I digress....). His complaint? Running slow/wierd.

Anyway, he has been unable to access WinUpdate for I don't know how long, so I tried to figure out why. He had msblast, so I removed that completely, but still no dice. I installed and ran Ad Aware and it only found a few objects, mostly "innocuous" items such as a few cookies and Alexa (which, while many will say it's technically not spy/parasiteware, just makes me mad). I have already dl'ed and run SpyBot, but came up w/ nothing exciting.

I updated his virus defs and ran a full sys scan (for whatever that's worth these days). It found one item. I can't even remember what it was, but it was low threat/damage. That's not to say there weren't 100 things it didn't/couldn't/wouldn't find, but I just posted that part to head any "are your virus defs up to date?" suggestions off at the pass. This was NAV Corporate Edition ver.8.x - again, for whatever that's worth these days.

The specific problem is this: when accessing WinUpdate (or the resident WinXP Help, or any page/resource which uses ActiveX controls), I receive the following error msg:

"Your current security settings prohibit running ActiveX controls on this page. As a result, the page may not display correctly."

I've searched for this a lot, and all the "help" seems to be of this nature: http://www.wintrouble.net/discus/me...html?1083597864

There is a KB Article (836942: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=836942) which helps me about as much. The sh*t of it is, no one seems to tell you what to do if this fails. I had thought that it might be that something was wrong with the install of IE, so I uninstalled it (which WinXP does *NOT* appreciate, mind you!) and reinstalled it from a clean .exe - still nothing. Same error msg.

BTW, the type of WinUpdates I'm wanting to do are of the "auto/manual" variety - i.e. I go to WinUpdate site, click "Scan for updates" which automatically determines (thanks to aforementioned ActiveX controls) which updates apply, I then "manually" decide which updates to apply. If I have to, I will sign on for "true" auto updates until the sys is up to speed, but at this point, I'd still like to try other options.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the novel.

The End.

P.S. Specs: WinXP(Home, SP1); 2GB P4; 128MB RAM (ridiculous, IMHO); MSIE 6.0.2800....;

P.P.S. I searched MG for this and found the following thread which contained the following exchange:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/vb/showthread.php?t=18253&highlight=activex+security+re-install

--------------
Where you going back to windows update when this happened?

If so to re-install goto in XP ( I'm assuming you have XP ) here and delete the "Update Class" file then goback to WU and when a security notice pops up say yes/ok and it will re-install the WU ActiveX control for WU

C:\WINDOWS\Downloaded Program Files
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There was no "Update Class" file in that dir. There were, however, two instances of "Java Runtime Environment 1.3.0_01" - and they both had a Status of "Damaged."

So, should I remove JRE (from Add/Remove Programs, and poss. from the Downloaded Programs Files folder), reboot, then reinstall JRE, or am I barking up the wrong tree with this? Also, since the info from this thread tends to suggest that the "Update Class" file *is* the ActiveX control for Windows Update, what does that say about this laptop if it *isn't* there?

Could *that* be the root cause of this problem? I honestly don't know if my cousin has *ever* run Windows Update - in fact, I'd be willing to bet he hasn't. Which might mean that this particular ActiveX control has *never* worked....

 

Oh, all those ActiveX settings are "enabled" or set to "prompt." I also set the slider to "Low" just so I could eliminate that sort of thing as an issue/cause. I've actually just left it like that because I only connect to the Inet with that comp when I'm trying out a new solution (until this is resolved, default position for the network cable is "unplugged"). I'm still hoping it's something *that* simple, though.

I was mad at myself for not thinking of it on my own, but was secretly praying this guy was right when he reminded me to make sure WinXP's ICF was off. I had *not* installed Zone Alarm or something of that nature simply to avoid that as an issue, and completely forgot about the resident firewall functionality (for whatever it's worth) in XP.

 

Interesting problem.

No 'Update Class' file most likely means the machine has never visited Widows Update.

Chances are the damaged Java installs are not the prob, but it wouldn't hurt to fix it. Right-click on one and choose 'Update' - if that fails, go into Internet Options > Advanced tab and unselect Java (Sun) and select the Microsoft VM options.

This post will also serve to bump this issue back to the top

 

I'll sit back and listen intently, because I've never seen a satisfactory resolution to this kind of issue, but if there is one, I know you guys will have it

 

Sorry MIA/AFK for so long.... had to run down to South Texas for a bit, thought I'd have Inet access. Alas, that wasn't quite the case. Hauled two laptops around (mine and the cousin's) for abso-friggin-lutely nothing. Anyhow, as soon as I finish checking backlogged work emails, will put these suggestions to the test and report back. BTW - thanks be to all......

 

"Update" option did not work for either of the JREs. When I went to Inet Options > Advanced in MSIE, all (3 of) the Microsoft VM options were already checked/selected. However, there was *no* Java (Sun) option, radio button, or checkbox to select/deselect. If I need to uninstall both instances of JRE and reinstall, just lemme know. Thanks.

 

robo, two questions:

a) which DLLs are pertinent (to MSIE, WinUpdate, and/or JavaRuntime Environment)?

b) how do I go about re-registering them?

Thanks for the look at this thread.

 

Halo, [software] firewall (ZoneAlarm) still uninstalled until problem is corrected; relying on the hardware firewall in the router and the fact that I only connect this PC to the network when attempting to test "fixes". No latent background firewall processes (i.e. leftovers) that I know of. AV prog is only a recent install (NAV 8.1.x), but I disable it before attempting to connect to WinUpdate site.

As to the KB you referenced, I had done most of that stuff before, just not necessarily in the order or to the extent specified. I noticed that when attempting to comply with the following section:

Delete files from the Windows Update folder

1. On the Windows desktop, double-click My Computer.
2. Double-click drive C.
3. Double-click the Program Files folder, and then double-click the WindowsUpdate folder.
4. Click the V4 folder, click Edit, click Invert Selection, and then press DELETE.
   
   Note If you cannot find the V4 folder, click Edit, click Select All and then press DELETE. Skip steps 5 and 6.
5. Double-click the V4 folder.
6. Click the Iuhist.xml file, click Edit, click Invert Selection, and then press DELETE.

after completing steps 1-5, I discovered that there was no Iuhist.xml file. Instead, there was only an (empty) "temp" folder within V4. Further, I searched my entire hdd for the file - nothing. Again, this isn't terribly surprising if this laptop has never visited the WinUpdate website - but thought it was worth mentioning. Thanks for your help.

P.S. Date and time are correct. Not necessarily a "wierd ass thought" - you're starting to think like M$, which is both scary and potentially quite helpful to me! Stranger things have happened (not the least of which is shared settings between two [seemingly] different progs: MSIE and Win Media Player 9.x).

 

Try these steps..

Remove the Windows Update ActiveX Controls (which is in a different location after installing SP1)

1. Click Start, click Search, and then click For Files or Folders.
2. Type “iuctl.dll, Iuengine.dll” without the quotation marks in the "Search for Files or Folders named:" box.
3. Make sure that the Look In option indicates “Local Hard Drives”.
4. Click the Search button.
5. Delete all copies of these files.

once this steps have been completed we need to clean boot the system:

1. Click Start/Run
2. Type “msconfig” without the quotation marks and click OK
3. On the General tab, click Selective Startup and then unmark the “Load Startup Items” check box.
4. Click the Services tab and mark the “Hide all Microsoft Services” check box
5. Now unmark all of the services that remain.
6. Click Apply and then click Close
7. Restart your system

After completing these steps access the Windows Update site by going to the following link:
http://v4.windowsupdate.microsoft.com/en/default.asp . See if that asks you to reinstall the ActiveX object for winupdate. if it does, reinstall it. If after reinstalling you are able to install/access windows update then go back into the MSCONFIG program and then check "normal startup" and recheck all the services again.


**NOTE**

Sometimes when this technique is used, you get an error about you must be an admin to access windows update even though your username is a local admin, just follow the steps in the link below to fix that.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=316524

Partie™

 

Partie, I'm currently running some utils, etc, that I got from the campus central IT office (they've got no clue on this one - surprise - essentially suggested I try this and pray). As soon as I'm done, will apply your suggestion.

FYI, though: I've already done the first part of what you suggested (those files don't exist on this PC). However, I hadn't done the 2nd part. Maybe that'll help? I can only pray!

 

Partie, had my fingers crossed, but still got the security settings / activex error msg.

Had some interesting error msgs when trying to manually install Hotfixes from a CD provided to me by campus IT support office. Will post after lunch. Thanks for everyone's help thus far!

 

Here's the deal: campus IT gave me a CD that they produce every month. It includes current NAV updates (no problem, mine are already up to date) and cumulative WinUpdate Hotfixes, Patches, etc. My CD was current as of May 11, 2004. I rebooted and went into Safe Mode, at which time I ran the prog from CD, as per the instructions. Basically, it's a command prompt interface to the CD, that allows you to select from a number of options (in this case, four).

I went to Option #1, even though I "knew" (can you every really know?) I was virus-free (according to the last system scan I did Monday). Option #1 allows you to run worm/virus fix tools from Symantec. There were 18 of them, I believe. I ran 'em all, they didn't work because no viruses/worms were located (so none to fix). Just trying to be thorough on my part.

Anyway, Option #2 was to "Install Critical Windows Updates." I selected this, which runs a batch install on all the WinUpdates that are on the CD. My next post will show the results of this attempt at doing WinUpdates manually.

 

There were approx 58 WinUpdates on the CD. The first 14 installed without issue. The 15th, Hotfix Q330994, elicited the following error msg (hereafter referred to as "SI" for "Software Installation"):



Obviously, this Hotfix/Patch did not take/install fully and was aborted. "OK" was the only option. After selecting "OK," the batch process went on to the next Hotfix/Patch. It installed fine, as did a few more. With Q814078, I got the above SI error msg once again. However, this time, after selecting "OK," I got another error msg: Windows Script 5.6:

[URL]

After selecting OK, the batch process continued installing updates. Until I got to Q822925. Then I got the SI error on it, and again on KB824145. After selecting OK, the batch process continued installing updates until I got to Q832894. Then it got [i]really[/i] interesting. I received the following MSIE Update error msg:

[URL]

WTF?!? One can only imagine my surprise! This is odd for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that MSIE 6.x comes [i]bundled[/i] with WinXP! Further, I have looked at the "Help> About" a number of times previously. I [i]know[/i] ver.6.x is installed. It is actually: 6.0.2800.1106.xpsp2.030422-1633 (to be exact). Also, the HJT log I generated a couple weeks ago agrees with that perfectly. Hmmn.

Anywho... I got a couple more SI errors, but - distraught - didn't bother writing them down. Then, with only a couple more updates to install, I got the following with KB831240:

[URL]

Oh well. After this was done, I rebooted, and came back to the desktop out of safe mode. I went to the Windows Update site, but was rebuffed with the same old error that started this post. Ho hum....

 

Sorry, was unable to edit my last post just 5 minutes later (once I got the images online), so I'm replying/quoting and inserting links to images (sorry for all the white space w/ images):

A little later, I went to the Windows Downloads and tried to dl a couple directly from microsoft.com, got the following:

http://webpages.acs.ttu.edu/nsyma/images/full_size/pc/setup_error.jpg

And, yes - I'm *so* at the point of reinstalling the OS, Halo. Feeling utterly defeated.

Again, I'd just like to thank everyone for all their help, suggestions, and empathy.

 

Ton of good info in that thread, I forgot all about it.