Windows Update doesnt work, and Norton AV 2003 is screwed

[Big Booger]

Have a friend who called me up today and told me about these two problems.

Well I couldn't get Norton to work right. So I installed Grisoft AVG. It worked flawlessly.

Now on to Windows Update.

It won't work. Even the catalog won't work so we couldn't even download them manually.

I did a chkdsk, scanned the machine with AVG for virii..

Tried the following solutions suggested on techzonez:
http://www.techzonez.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4138&highlight=windows+update

tried renaming the CATROOT2 and CATROOT folders. Tried deleting the update MS certificated. Tried everything..


Any ideas?

I told him to run a system file check, and if that didn't work, that we would reinstall his operting system.

One other thing, he cannot check hotmail on the hotmail.com website but he can check it from outlook express... something is definitely go on.. I thought it was a virus.. but the scan didn't show anything.

[FastGame]

Has he applied any XP tweaks lately ?

This XP tweak [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\FileSystem]
"NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation"=dword:00000001 has been known to cause all kinds of problems with Nortons AV.

Also XP anti-spy this Disable intergrated Windows authentification will prevent Win update from working.

Those two things have done to my XP the things you describe...other than that.....:confused:

[Big Booger]

I don't think so. BUt I will check tomorrow. I worked on his PC tonight through remote desktop for about 4 hours.. removing this adding that, disabled a few system services, checked to see that automatic updates service was still running...

Thanks for the suggestion, will look it over as soon as I can.
Any more suggestions are welcomed.
Thanks

[Conan]

Originally posted by FastGame
Also XP anti-spy this Disable intergrated Windows authentification will prevent Win update from working.

Those two things have done to my XP the things you describe...other than that.....:confused:

I have this tweak active using XP Anti-Spy and I am able to update Windows with no problems.

It sounds like his Browser is damaged by the fact that he cannot access Hotmail. What firewall is he using? One day I forgot that I had all the anti-RIAA stuff in my Sygate Firewall activated and then I could not access some web sites. When I turned them off I had full access to any site once again.

[Big Booger]

Also, the fix that Conan posted Here (http://www.techzonez.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=4617) doesn't install...
it gives some error about update.ini and cryptographic services need to be turned on..
but I checked cryptographic services, and they are running...

and update.ini file is installed, i tried deleting it, and it didn't work either :( so then I restored the update.ini file..

[Stripe]

Did you reset the IE settings back to default? Besides that, try a repair on the IE, maybe something in there got screwed.

As for Norton, I've had plenty of problems with Norton so I'll second you on that (although I'm still using it) :o

[Hex]

This problem comes from a windows update that includes an unregistered dll file. This file has to do with some of the security features of your IE and in turn can cause problems with the windows update (which has to do with Active X controls) and cypher strength. I'm betting your friend can't go to any site that begins with https. The wierd thing is in IE it will still show 128 bit cypher strength, but because of that unregistered dll file it dosn't matter because it won't allow access to that part of IE. Long story short, do the following:

1)Start>Run>Type the following - regsvr32 softpub.dll
2)Next hit OK>OK again, then restart your computer

From there you should be good to go but I would suggest either creating a system restore point to get back to this state if need be, or get rid of the hotfix that jacked it in the first place. The problem is I don't know exactly which hotfix causes this.

Good Luck,

Hex

[Big Booger]

Well,
He reformatted the drive and all works well now. BUt in the future I'll give your advice a shot.
Thanks,