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Thread: What is this Software Distribution Service 2.0?

  1. #31
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    Very good idea, Rik...

    That's exactly what I'll try. This afternoon, I realized that I'd still not changed the defalut from "notify me" to "disable automatic update." I went to the restroom, and it was already in the process of re-installing the updates before it shut down. I pulled the power cord. Even with the degraded video, I should be able to reach Settings and roll back the driver...

  2. #32
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    Software Distribution Services directory??

    I decided to poke thru my xp pro directories and found the directory "E:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution." Check out the file "ReportingEvents.log" in Notepad (fullscreen).

    Referring to the log, it seems that just before every instance that an update was actually installed (whether or not after a reboot, as some updates do not require a reboot) a new entry of "Software Distribution Service 2.0" would be created in System Restore. This shows the restore points were made before each update.

    My last entry for "Software Distribution Service 2.0" in System Restore" is at 3:00:15 AM on Wednesday, April 26. Checking near the end of the log file, the closest entry to this is at 3:00:42 with the message "AutomaticUpdates - Installation successful and restart required for the following update: Update for Windows XP (KB900485)."

    The next entry has the same time stamp, and says "Restart Required: To complete the installation of the following updates, the computer will be restarted within 5 minutes: - Update for Windows XP (KB900485)." There is one other "Restart Required" entry in the log like this. (( The one for Wednesday did start the computer on its own, & I remember it happening before. I thought I had some virus or whatever and was looking for the solution. Turns out it was Windows Update that did it. )) In these cases they must be critical updates, and the "SDS2.0" entry in System Restore was made before the boot because it was a forced restart. In all of the other cases the entry occurred just before the actual installation.

    One odd thing I noticed is that in the entries prior to March 21, the times in the log file are one hour behind the times in System Restore. Apparently, Windows Update does not adjust for Daylight Saings Time!!

    Hope this helps and my explanation is clear.

  3. #33
    Old and Cranky Super Moderator rik's Avatar
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    Thanks for the explanation Mikey. Excellent input.

  4. #34
    Triple Platinum Member Curio's Avatar
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    In your %Windir% folder is a folder that keeps the updates - for mine it's in C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution - you may need to delete some files out of there to stop the update being automatically re-applied.

    You may be able to uninstall the update which causes a problem from add/remove programs - check the box at the top which says 'show updates'.

    As far as the display problem goes there was recently a problem with Nvidia drivers which I saw on a machine that prevented it working except with 16 colours 800x600 or less. Just rolled back the drivers on that one and it was OK, I don't believe it is also related to the verclsid.exe cock up, but who knows?
    I'm using Windows 7 - you got a problem with that?

  5. #35
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    The video driver rollback...

    did it!

  6. #36
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    I seem to have this problem with my computer also.
    But I can't open Internet explorer. It shows up in the Task Manager, but doesn't show up on the screen.

    Outlook sends and receives email and I can ping websites.

    I checked and the Genuine Advantage Valadation tool is installed and the Software Distribution is installed.

    I tried to just delete the folder 'Software Distibution', but after restart it was back.

    I drilled down under the 'Download' folder and it has another folder with just a bunch of numbers and letters that has the install of wgatray.exe and the spuninst.exe that will uninstall it. But that doesn't work.

    I can't go back to before the "SD" program is listed under system restore.

    How do I get rid of this?

  7. #37
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    Quote Originally Posted by Teetotaler View Post
    . . . I downloaded the updates.

    Days later, my computer's battery started to conflict with AC power. Now, my computer is shutting down frequently and refusing to come back on . . .
    Same thing happened with my Dell E510. I replaced the battery and it ran better but still kept shutting down. I thought it was the motherboard or the fan not working right. After 3-4 days of trying to get help through Dell Chat, I finally called in and the guy had me use the restore option through safe mode. I remembered seeing an update message on the PC around 4 AM on Friday morning (6/16) as I was getting up for work. So I checked that date and saw this software distribution service 2.0 running on that day. Everything went to hell on that day so I thought that would be a good place to restore to. After that, I started doing a little researching and found this board. So, we'll see if restoring to before that little update and turning auto update off will keep my computer from randomly shutting down. I'll let you know.

  8. #38
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    Thumbs up Getting rid of Software Distribution Service 2.0

    Ok boys and girls...

    Forgive me if I am making this too simplified... but this is for everyone.

    STEP ONE.

    To get rid of Microsoft’s nasty Software Distribution Service 2.0 you first need to go to your START Menu and open MY DOCUMENTS; navigate to the TOOLS menu and scroll down to FOLDER OPTIONS and select the VIEW tab. Next make sure there is a CHECK in the box in front of DISPLAY SYSTEM THE CONTENTS OF SYSTEM FOLDERS, then make sure that under HIDDEN FILES AND FOLDERS you have made the selection to SHOW HIDDEN FILES AND FOLDERS. Finally DESELECT or make sure that there is NO check in the box in front of the HIDE EXTENSIONS FOR KNOWN FILE TYPES. Then DESELCT or make sure that there is NO check in the box in front of the HIDE PROTECTED OPERATING SYSTEM FILES. Hit the APPLY to ALL FOLDERS button.

    STEP TWO
    CTRL+ALT+DEL and go to the processes tab. Look make sure verclsid.exe is not running – if it is select it and click END PROCESS.

    STEP THREE
    START/MY COMPUTER/C:/WINDOWS/SYSTEM 32 and look for VERCLSID.EXE and change the file extension from .exe to .old.

    STEP FOUR
    START/CONTROL PANEL/SECURITY CENTER/AUTOMATIC UPDATES and TURN OFF automatic Updates. Click APPLY

    STEP FIVE
    START/CONTROL PANEL/ADD OR REMOVE PROGRAMS and MAKE SURE the SHOW UPDATES box at the top is selected. Scroll down towards the end and remove any of the following KB908531, KB918165, KB834707, KB840987

    STEP SIX
    Just a suggestion would be to not use Internet Explorer and switch to another browser such as Mozilla or Opera.

    STEP SEVEN
    START/HELP AND SUPPORT/ PERFORMANCE AND MAINTENANCE;USING SYSTEM RESTORE TO UNDO CHANGES and then RUN THE SYSTEM RESTORE WIZARD. CREATE A RESTORE POINT and call it TEST. Now reboot and see if the restore point is still there. If it is you are GOLDEN. Your system restore will now work again from now on.

    NOTE: You will have to manually check for updates – or perhaps you can set your automatic updates to simply notify you … make sure you don’t download them again.

    (security bulletin MS06-015 is KB908531)


    That's my good deed for today.

    Tom Hintz
    Premier Pools
    Tucson, AZ

  9. #39
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    Quote Originally Posted by mshellhamer View Post
    Same thing happened with my Dell E510. I replaced the battery and it ran better but still kept shutting down. I thought it was the motherboard or the fan not working right. After 3-4 days of trying to get help through Dell Chat, I finally called in and the guy had me use the restore option through safe mode. I remembered seeing an update message on the PC around 4 AM on Friday morning (6/16) as I was getting up for work. So I checked that date and saw this software distribution service 2.0 running on that day. Everything went to hell on that day so I thought that would be a good place to restore to. After that, I started doing a little researching and found this board. So, we'll see if restoring to before that little update and turning auto update off will keep my computer from randomly shutting down. I'll let you know.

    FYI, turned out it was the fan or CPU going bad and probably nothing to do with the software distribution service. Dell sent someone over to replace the fan and the CPU and it's been working great ever since.

  10. #40
    Old and Cranky Super Moderator rik's Avatar
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    Glad you got it sorted out.

  11. #41
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    I had a problem with the chat program Paltalk. It was taking ages to log in but this was after one of their updates. All was fine before I updated to their new version. I tried everything to fix the slow login problem by uninstalling Paltalk and re-installng with mt previous older version that worked properly the day before, all still to no avail. In desperation I decided to go back a week on Xp Restore. That still didnt fix it. I checked my Restore points even further back and discovered one on 6th October where I had done a manual MS Update. I had installed the Validation Tool again but NOT the SDS 2.0. As mentioned above in one of the posts, it must have been bundled with the Validation Tool. After reading your posts here I decided to go back and do an XP Restore BEFORE that MS update ( on the 4th October ). After reboot and restore I had NO problems with Paltalk login. I can only assume that the SDS 2.0 had in some way interferred with the latest version of Paltalk. In any case I'm glad I came here after a google search on this SDS and found similar problems. Thanks all for your suggestions. The Rollback/Restore before MS update worked fine for me also.

  12. #42
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    Unhappy

    members I am at a loss. I read all of these posts and I noticed that until tonight nobody had posted since spring on this sds2.0 problem.
    I unfortunately am not able to go back in system restore to the previous time before validation tool update.. I think it was since this update that things got worse. My icons look a little funny everywhere on my system, as if they had blank white frames around them. Should I even worry about this? Does anyone have any suggestions.. I am about to follow poolarchitect's 7 step program a few posts back... but if any one has other ideas please share.

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