Windows XP Service Pack 3 Hangs on “Performing cleanup”

KB ID 0000364

Problem

Saw this a while ago, and just thought it was a “One Off”. Then on a visit to a client yesterday I saw it on both machines I was working on.

Solution

This might scare you, but you need to kill the update, don’t panic at this stage SP3 is already on.

Update 05/04/11: Before continuing please read the feedback below. Ive never personally seen any adverse effects from doing this and I’ve rolled out a few thousand service packs.

1. Right click your task bar and select “Task Manager”.

2. On the applications tab > Select the Software Update Installation Wizard > Click End Task > Accept any warnings etc.

3. Reboot the PC > SP3 installation will recover and finish, ignore any errors or warnings just let it boot up and you will be at SP3, at this point finish the good work by going to windows update and getting all the post SP3 updates.

Feedback from Patrick Wright (05/04/11)

I am sending you a message concerning your advice on the Windows XP SP3 install “hanging” at “Performing Cleanup…”.  The advice you give is to end the installation task at this point and reboot the computer.

The truth of the matter is that during the “Performing Cleanup…” step, there is indeed quite a bit of activity and updating going on.  I’ve had this step take as long as 6 hours on slower machines on our network but it finishes successfully.

For testing purposes, I tried your solution on three training machines that were still running SP2 and ran into numerous issues after rebooting with getting several programs to install that require a minimum of SP3–Adobe Standard/Professional 10 is only one example and will refuse to install on all three of the test machines that I tried your suggested fix on.  It appears that even though Windows shows in system properties to be upgraded to SP3, it is not completely finished if you stopped the install prematurely by ending that task. 

I strongly advise to consider changing your solution to simply wait out the “Performing Cleanup…” task until it finishes.  It can take a while.  I’ve found one way to help the process along is to set the process for the updater to “high priority” in task manager.  This resulted in drastically faster install times when the installer seemed to “hang” at that part of the install.

 

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Stop Windows Rebooting Due To Updates

KB ID 0000773

Problem

I realise that updates are important, and Microsoft made updating easier by only releasing them once a month. But my laptop always wants to reboot at the point where I’m doing something critical! and Windows 8 unilaterally decides that its updates are far more important than my work.

OK this will only happen once a month, (normally) and it will only happen a maximum of 72 hours after the update. It affects me because I never shut my machine down, (I just close the lid).

Warning: Like I said updates are a good thing, if you disable this feature the onus is on you to keep your machine up to date!

Solution

Stop Windows 8 Rebooting Due To Updates with Group Policy

1. Press Windows Key+R > In the run box type gpedit.msc {Enter}.

2. Navigate to;

[box] Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Update [/box]

3. Locate the ‘No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic updates installations’ policy. Set its value to enabled > Apply > OK.

4. Press Windows Key+R > In the run box type cmd {Enter} > At command line issue the following command;

[box] gpupdate /force [/box]

Stop Windows 8 Rebooting Due To Updates via the Registry

Note: If you have already set this in policy (above) you don’t need to do this as well.

5. Press Windows Key+R > In the run box type regedit {Enter} > Navigate to;

[box]HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Policies > Microsoft > Windows[/box]

If there is not a Key Called WindowsUpdate create one.

6. And within the WindowsUpdate Key create another key.

7. Call that key AU.

8. Within that create a new DWORD (32 bit) value called ‘NoAutoRebootWithLoggedOnUsers’.

9. Set its value to 1 (one).

 

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Office Install Error 1935

KB ID 0000399 

Problem

Seen while installing Office 2007 Enterprise On Server 2008 R2 (Don’t ask).

Error:
Microcyst Office enterprise 2007 encountered and error during setup.
Error 1935.An error occurred during the installation of an assembly component
{837Bf-1EB-D770-94EB-A01F-C8B389A1E18E}. HRESULT: 0x80070BC9

Solution

1. Essentially there is a .Net problem, On Server 2008 you will need to add in .Net as a feature. (Server Manager > Features > Add Feature > Locate and install .Net).

2. Follow the instructions, when finished run Windows Update to get the latest .Net service pack installed, then reboot.

3. Post reboot, it should install without error.

 

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