Very true Bichur. I intended from the customer's viewpoint. There is no real incentive for me to work faster as I make more the longer it takes. I only seek the fastest solution that fully resolves the problem because it is the right way to do business.

Back on topic: Starkers, have you got anywhere with your problem?

THE (little) Prog (without installation process (just put it in a folder and run it) is "Dial-a-fix" it will repair for sure any trouble you may get with Windows Update (and some others ...)

You can find it for example here WWW Link (it's the latest version)

May I ask a simple couple of questions ?

1. you have a dual boot machine for vista and xp - which OS did you install first?
2. are the two OS's installed on a different hard drive?
3. why is it that these updates are not installed from the past?
4. could you give us a break down of the hardware in use?
[ such as computer brand name or board used, hard drives and partition sizes - esp! ]

I ask this for getting some better understanding as to the why this has happened to determine if it is worth any type of a repair. There is a lot to that why also... which if not answered could happen again. Which I'm sure you do not want that at all.

The ole "Just reinstall windows" thing works - but in my book is not a good fix for a problem you have yet to fully identify with yet. It almost sounds like data loss due to a wrong partition maybe. With of course the ole "two OS's that have merged some data the wrong way!"...

Really need to get the story straight on how this has happened to figure the proper way to deal with it completely.

Take a deep breath and take your time with explaining what you think may have happened. Plus the when and what you did... along with the design of that machine completely.

I'm betting it is one hard drive with a partition for each OS.

SGT  

The old work ethic... time is money debate, eh!!!

Seems to me I've been played at my own game... the pirate's thread has been pirated.

Anyhow, back to the issue at hand... damned blasted effing computers... grrrrr!!

Not only can I not install the downloaded Windows updates, now I've lost the internet on XP as well... something to do with "cannot resolve my IP address" after I inadvertently did something or other.... or in other words, effed it up.

In answer to the account type and security apps: there is only one user account, mine, and the standard Administrator acct. The only security apps currently running/installed are Avast Anti-virus Home Edition, Ad Aware 2007, and PC Tools firewall. However, I shall go back into XP later, put on my Administrator's hat so XP knows I'm boss, and disable them to see if they may be preventing installation.

Thanks, Neophil, shall also look into that prior to a clean install of XP... being I only did one a bit over a week or so ago.

Let us know how it turns out.

That is good to hear

Nasty