With Microsoft, the horsesh*t never stops. Never. First we had stealth updates. Now we have the (not entirely unexpected) result: A silent update that Microsoft deployed widely in July and August is preventing the "repair" feature of Windows XP from completing successfully. IronMan FULL STORY

Thanks for the post. No, it's not unexpected, as you say. For those affected by this latest Microsoft snafu, it's even smaller comfort. The question begs to be asked: Does anyone at MS proof-read or test the code before it's made available on their website? You couldn't prove it by those trashed by this latest debacle. For those who would defend MS, pointing out the innumerable permutations of user's operating systems and their accessories, that won't wash either. These stealth updates are targeted at low-level (fundamental) parts of the OS. My grandfather used to say: How do ya like it so far? :)

Good find ironman. You just pushed me over the edge. I just shutoff any update info. I previously had been allowing notification of available updates. There are a number of current threads here at CN that may be related to this bug.

Per posted a fix for this earlier this month... http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/... Which is kind of prophetic, because Fred Langas newsletter has just published a similar fix... http://windowssecrets.com/ Quote: Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity!