Switching Windows updates off!! (1 Viewer)

Bulletguy

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OK.....been offline last couple of days due to some 'bug' which locked up my pc resulting in having to totally reformat the h/drive and reinstall XP.

Some things you can remember where to go....some you can't.

I need to turn off windows automatic updates. There is a way of doing it....but i cannot remember where it's done! Windows doesn't tell you because they don't like you to turn it off but quite frankly these 'updates' are nothing but a complete pain in the ass and have a nasty habit of stopping other programs from working.

Anyone know where they can be turned off?
 

Papa Smurf

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Control Panel | security centre

remember the F1 key is always your friend (help)

It's not a clever thing to do though:- I'd really think twice about doing it.
 
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Bulletguy

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Control Panel | security centre

remember the F1 key is always your friend (help)

It's not a clever thing to do though:- I'd really think twice about doing it.
Got it! Thanks!! :thumb:

Problem with auto updates is they tend to 'have a mind of their own' and you soon lose control over whats going in. First time i 'let them run' on auto i was having to do an entire reformat within months.

With 'em switched off, this pc has run for four trouble free years.

Only thing thats bugging me now is a daft pop up telling me my registry is corrupt and needs a clean up. It's quite crafty....it 'pretends' to be a windows microsoft site, but when you go and look at it, it's a cleverly disguised con to get you to subscribe to it.

Funny that my entire registry files etc were installed only a matter of a couple of hours ago from the original Dell OS disc which came with the pc. :RollEyes:

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American Dream

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OK.....been offline last couple of days due to some 'bug' which locked up my pc resulting in having to totally reformat the h/drive and reinstall XP.

Some things you can remember where to go....some you can't.

I need to turn off windows automatic updates. There is a way of doing it....but i cannot remember where it's done! Windows doesn't tell you because they don't like you to turn it off but quite frankly these 'updates' are nothing but a complete pain in the ass and have a nasty habit of stopping other programs from working.

Anyone know where they can be turned off?

Yes,

Go to START/CONTROL PANEL/SECURITY CENTRE/AUTOMATIC UPDATES.

I'd personally recommend setting this to "Download updates for me,but let me choose when to install them"

That way you can wait a week or so and see if there's any bugs in them.

Have you loaded Windows XP SP3 up yet?

I would really not recommend turning them off as some web based sites etc require the .net patches and others the security patches.

Steve.
 

GJH

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Yes,

Go to START/CONTROL PANEL/SECURITY CENTRE/AUTOMATIC UPDATES.

I'd personally recommend setting this to "Download updates for me,but let me choose when to install them"

That way you can wait a week or so and see if there's any bugs in them.

Have you loaded Windows XP SP3 up yet?

I would really not recommend turning them off as some web based sites etc require the .net patches and others the security patches.

Steve.

I've used the same settings as Steve recommends ever since automatic updates started.

The only problem I've had was earlier this year when one affected Zone Alarm users - but that was due to the way that ZA interacted with the OS rather than Microsoft's fault.

The updates do sometimes appear at an inconvenient time - but better that than worse problems.

Graham
 

Pronto

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Just read this thread after replying to Jim's post re 3 Dongle in France --- can be quite embarassing:Blush: and expensive:cry: when it isn't turned off!!

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Bulletguy

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I would really not recommend turning them off as some web based sites etc require the .net patches and others the security patches.
Well here is an 'up to the minute' example.

Reformatted drive C and did a complete reinstallation of XP last night from original XP disc (not a copy), that came with PC when bought new.

As things were still not fully back to normal i decided to try these updates. Downloaded them, clicked to install and........BANG! Another crash.

Resigned myself to having to do another reformat....and it wouldn't let me! Switched pc off, turned back on.....and everything came back up though its still not 100% right. Now getting another pop up claiming my registry is corrupted and go to Link Removed. Sounds like another scam.

I get the feeling if i try this or try another install of 'updates'...i'm going to be offline for some time.
 

Papa Smurf

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Bulletguy - sounds more like you have a persistent virus / trojan or worm that remains on your hard drive unless you do a low-level format .

I would be extremely surprised if it were due to updates - have you been able to google to see if there are other instances of the problem you have?

Regfixit.com is a site that sells reg cleaner software. There is no need - it will offer you a free scan and then tell you you have hundreds of problems. Go to Symantec (Norton) or f-secure.com if you can and get a free virus scan of your disc. If there is a problem, they will also have instructions on how to fix it.

Papa
 
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Bulletguy

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Bulletguy - sounds more like you have a persistent virus / trojan or worm that remains on your hard drive unless you do a low-level format .

I would be extremely surprised if it were due to updates - have you been able to google to see if there are other instances of the problem you have?

Regfixit.com is a site that sells reg cleaner software. There is no need - it will offer you a free scan and then tell you you have hundreds of problems. Go to Symantec (Norton) or f-secure.com if you can and get a free virus scan of your disc. If there is a problem, they will also have instructions on how to fix it.

Papa
I'm looking at pulling the drive out altogether and starting afresh. PC World have 80gb ide drives in at less than a tenner!

The drive giving me these problems is the one which came ready formatted with the PC which i've owned from new. It came partitioned with FAT which cannot be formatted or altered....only the NTFS section can.

I can check for errors on that h/d via Properties > Tools which i'm about to look at now. Be prepared for me to disappear yet again!

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American Dream

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I'm looking at pulling the drive out altogether and starting afresh. PC World have 80gb ide drives in at less than a tenner!

The drive giving me these problems is the one which came ready formatted with the PC which i've owned from new. It came partitioned with FAT which cannot be formatted or altered....only the NTFS section can.

I can check for errors on that h/d via Properties > Tools which i'm about to look at now. Be prepared for me to disappear yet again!

Is the FAT partition a recovery partition?You seem to suggest it has 2.

The problem virus or malware might be lurking in the other partition.

If there are 2,are you able to scan both partitions?

Steve
 
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Bulletguy

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Is the FAT partition a recovery partition?You seem to suggest it has 2.

The problem virus or malware might be lurking in the other partition.

If there are 2,are you able to scan both partitions?

Steve
File Allocation Table according to Google!
My reinstallation disc does give me the option to reformat but i'm not sure if that section has actually been scanned. It's 40mb of space on a 120gb drive. Neither am i altogether sure if i tried to reformat it, what it may result in.

At the moment its one very unhappy hard drive making some pretty unfamiliar noises and doing some very odd things.

Tried a disc check via Properties > Tools and after reaching the final section everything just locked up and i lost windows again. Restarting the pc, it came back on!
 

Papa Smurf

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Bulletguy - you can format any disk using format.exe.

format

Format a hard drive or floppy disk. format d: [options]
Warning: while format supports FAT32, running under Win98 to create FAT32 does not work well. Options

d:
The hard drive or floppy disk to format.

/D
Gives very detailed information, for debugging and for bug
reports.

/V:label
Assign this label to the formatted disk.

/Q
Do a quick format. This clears the FAT and root directory, but does
not erase the disk.

/U
Do an unconditional format.

/F:size
Format the disk to a specific size. This can only be used with
floppy disks. Valid values are:
160 | 160k | 160kb
Format to 160kb.

180 | 180k | 180kb
Format to 180kb.

320 | 320k | 320kb
Format to 320kb.

360 | 360k | 360kb
Format to 360kb.

720 | 720k | 720kb
Format to 720kb.

1200 | 1200k | 1200kb | 1.2 | 1.2m | 1.2mb
Format to 1.2MB.

1440 | 1440k | 1440kb | 1.44 | 1.44m | 1.44mb
Format to 1.44MB.

2880 | 2880k | 2880kb | 2.88 | 2.88m | 2.88mb
Format to 2.88MB.

/B
Reserve space to make a bootable disk. This cannot
be combined with /S.

/S
Make a system disk (copy files to make it bootable.)

/T:tracks
Specify the number of tracks on the disk.

/N:sectors
Specify the number of sectors.


/Z Options


/Z:longhelp
Gives detailed, technical usage information.

/Z:seriously
Suppresses the confirmation request when you use format with a hard disk.

/Z:mirror
Saves the unformat "mirror data", without
formatting the disk.

/Z:unformat
Unformats the disk, if the mirror data is fresh.

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American Dream

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File Allocation Table according to Google!
My reinstallation disc does give me the option to reformat but i'm not sure if that section has actually been scanned. It's 40mb of space on a 120gb drive. Neither am i altogether sure if i tried to reformat it, what it may result in.

At the moment its one very unhappy hard drive making some pretty unfamiliar noises and doing some very odd things.

Tried a disc check via Properties > Tools and after reaching the final section everything just locked up and i lost windows again. Restarting the pc, it came back on!

OK.

IF IT WERE ME, WITH THE CURRENT PRICE OF HARD DISKS, AND NOT KNOWING THE AGE OF THE DRIVE.

I would replace the drive and load the OS back on to it.

You are wasting far too much time trying to use a suspect drive.

There will always be uncertainties should problems persist.

That's what I'd do.Make sure the original is formatted and hit it with a B****y big hammer if there's personal data on it.:ROFLMAO:

Steve.
 
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itinerant

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Is the FAT partition a recovery partition?You seem to suggest it has 2.

The problem virus or malware might be lurking in the other partition.

If there are 2,are you able to scan both partitions?

Steve

My grandson shares his mothers PC and kept on getting it virused. So I fitted it out with hard drive caddies and they plug in their own hard drive as and when. Plus when I get called in to sort it out I can take a ready set up hard drive with me and not have that several hours of frigging when I get there. Having all your stuff on one fixed drive is just too nightmarish when it all goes boobies up!
Cheers
 

RobMD

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Unless it is a very old drive, and by the size it isn't, provided you have your copy of XP on a disk, I would be inclined to re-partition the drive to one partition, then format the whole thing to NTFS.
When XP is up and running, if you really want a second partition use an utility such as Partition Magic to partition the drive.
I prefer my Docs & Pics etc. to be on a seperate FAT32 partition so I can access them from DOS in case of problems - and yes I do back-up important files to removable media!

As far as Windows Updates is concerned, I have my comp set to inform me when they are available - I decide what to download and install.

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Bulletguy

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IF IT WERE ME, WITH THE CURRENT PRICE OF HARD DISKS, AND NOT KNOWING THE AGE OF THE DRIVE.

I would replace the drive and load the OS back on to it.
Probably will.
The current (primary) drive is 120gb but doesn't need to be that big as i'm running 2 x 120gb drives...C drive (primary) i use for OS and main programmes such as IE and OE etc, D drive i use for 'stuff' such as movies, mpegs, mp3/4's etc etc.

PC world had 80gb drives at ÂŁ9.97 on their website....but of course when i enquire, they are "out of stock" and won't be getting any more in!



Unless it is a very old drive, and by the size it isn't, provided you have your copy of XP on a disk, I would be inclined to re-partition the drive to one partition, then format the whole thing to NTFS.

As far as Windows Updates is concerned, I have my comp set to inform me when they are available - I decide what to download and install.
Rob....as you can see from the above, i'm running 2 x 120gb h/drives. As for age, the computer was built by Dell in October 2003 and i bought it new from a dealer in 2004, so the original single 120gb drive is fairly old now (i added the second 120gb drive after i'd bought the pc).

It came with XP Professional and i upgraded the pc to its present spec with twin h/drives, 2 dvd/rw's, plus 1.5g ram.

Its current downloading a pile of updates including XP service pack 2 (been told service pack 3 doesn't 'like' Zone Alarm so might not bother with sp3).

If all these updates dont make any difference to the running of the drive and i end up buying a new one.....is SATA compatible with my D drive which is IDE? Most h/drives now seem to be with a SATA interface as opposed to IDE.

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GJH

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There was one update to Windows earlier this year (July if memory serves) which adversely affected users of Zone Alarm. However, Checkpoint released a fix within a day or two so if you have the latest version of Zone Alarm there is no problem downloading SP3. We have SP3 on all three of our machines which use XP and have no problems.

The type of drive you can use (SATA or IDE) depends on the capabilities of your motherboard - i.e. which type(s) of drive it supports. Your manual should tell you what you can and can't use.

Graham
 
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Bulletguy

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These updates now appear to have completely stopped installing with the icon stuck at 0%. Looked at Task Manager and nothing there is running. Looked in Add/Remove and it shows just one update for XP, Win Installer 3.1 and an XP hotfix.

It's looking like a replacement h/d. :Sad:
 

American Dream

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These updates now appear to have completely stopped installing with the icon stuck at 0%. Looked at Task Manager and nothing there is running. Looked in Add/Remove and it shows just one update for XP, Win Installer 3.1 and an XP hotfix.

It's looking like a replacement h/d. :Sad:

Is this after SP3 was installed.

There is an issue with some hardware where SP3 Stops updates from installing.

Just a thought.

PS There is a "fix" for it. >Link Removed<

Here's the fix...AND it works.

You need to re-register the Windows Update .dll's.
I opened a command window (Start -> Run -> cmd -> OK), and typed the following commands, one at a time:
After each line press the return/enter key and wait for the confirmation message.
net stop wuauserv
regsvr32 wuapi.dll
regsvr32 wuaueng1.dll
regsvr32 wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 wucltui.dll
regsvr32 wups2.dll
regsvr32 wups.dll
regsvr32 wuweb.dll
net start wuauserv
Windows displays a confirmation box as each DLL is registered.
After this, when I tried the updates again via IE -> Tools -> Windows Update, everything worked as expected .



Steve.

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Bulletguy

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Latest 'update' to updates!

Finally managed to get SP2 installed which appears to have 'settled' the pc down. Before i was getting seasick from the screen 'scrolling' in waves!

As for installing SP3 i'm not too sure about going for it. A mate of mine couldn't get Zone Alarm ver.7 to run with it and had to use an earlier version of ZA, others reckon it works. Some guy at work swears by AVG and won't hear of ZA at all....but then i've used ZA for 3-4 years without any problems and have tried AVG in the past.
 

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