if it is a simple act of downloading a patch update that will fix it that would probably be worth trying if it is doing a bunch of involved steps like they sent you before I think I would just leave it hidden, since it does say it installed but just keeps showing up over and over.

Here's what the last e-mail says It looks to me that it's as bad as the first "fix":
Step 1: Download and Install KB950582

=============================

1. Please download Update for Windows XP (KB950582) from following link.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/c/c/9/cc95b2e5-3410-4765-a094-837a177d1e5d/WindowsXP-KB950582-x86-ENU.exe

2. Please double click the downloaded file to install.

3. After installing Update for Windows XP (KB950582), please reboot the computer and check the issue on the update website again.

If our issue persists, let us install KB967715 in Safe Mode to test our issue.

Step 2: Download and install KB967715

================================

1. Please download KB967715 by the clicking this direct link:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/info.aspx?na=90&p=&SrcDisplayLang=en&SrcCategoryId=&SrcFamilyId=c7dbcde3-7814-47c5-849e-e64ecfb35d74&u=http%3a%2f%2fdownload.microsoft.com%2fdownload%2f1%2fB%2f3%2f1B331878-8AF9-4642-94F4-0B0B0A9DD14A%2fWindowsXP-KB967715-x86-ENU.exe

2. Save it to the Hard Disk C (C:\).

3. Restart the computer and start pressing the F8 key on the keyboard.

4. When the Windows Advanced Options menu appears, select Safe Mode, and then press Enter.

5. Log onto Windows by using the Administrator account and password.

Note: The password is blank by default unless you have already set a password. In Safe Mode, the system display and Desktop will look and perform differently than in Normal Mode. This is only temporary. To return the system back to Normal Mode, we can simply restart the computer.

6. Open C:\Windows, locate the folder SoftwareDistribution, please rename it to sdold.

7. Please double click the installation file under C:\ to install the update again.

After we have finished the above steps, please restart the computer and try to update Windows again. If we still encounter an issue after performing the above steps, please help me collect the installation log for further troubleshooting:

Collect KB967715.log

===============

1. Click "Start"->"Run", type: %windir% and press "Enter".

2. Locate a file named " KB967715.log".

3. Please send it as an attachment to: v-30kiyu@mssupport.microsoft.com.

Note: When attaching files to emails, the process will vary depending on the email application being used. While you are composing the email, most applications will provide you with either an "Attach" button or Paper Clip Icon to click in order to attach a file. After clicking this button/icon you must browse to the file you wish to attach and select it by either double clicking it or clicking it once and then clicking on the "Attach" button.

Your feedback is very important to us. I would appreciate your confirmation or a reply from you on the results for the suggestions above. If anything is unclear, or if there are any questions about the steps, please do not hesitate to let me know. I will be glad to help.

Seeing what other people are going through to get rid of this problem, I guess I got off easily. Add/Remove showed the file to be in my computer, but I kept getting the prompts to download and install it. This rapidly becomes old, as we all know!

After a few weeks of enduring the constant messages and sometimes clicking on "Turn off computer without installing" and at other times forgetting, (so the file got reinstalled, presumably), I got a notice that there were now two things to be downloaded and installed. This time, I clicked the customize option to check what they were, and found that one was that hated file, so I only put a check by the other one. Then I got a box that allowed me to tell Microsoft not to offer to install KB967715 any more. Choosing that seems to have stopped the offers.

biwako...that's where I stand now. But...that's not what they want...they want it downloaded and installed on our computers..not hidden away like you and I have done. They tell me there is a missing file and that is the reason it wouldn't download and install correctly.

Sorry, I don't remember all the prior information exchanged on this issue. I had no deep seeded desire to search for the original threads(s) via the forum's search engine. So if I had some potential advice or suggestions to resolve this concern it has gone to the wayside.

It is absolutely in every members best interest to have information contained in a continuous thread. When a thread moves to the top members will quickly recognize there is new information. It makes it easier for members to help and learn.

DA

Well, consider me chastised....I had no desire to go hunting for it either....I just thought someone might be interested in that update as there were problems with it and it's an ongoing thing for me. And..that other thread got so long and convaluted, I fiugred no one would read another reply on it...if you had no problem with this update or hadn't tried to help someone with it, you would have no interest in reading this one any way.

Maybee: It isn't hidden away on my computer. It is there in the list of all the other MS updates in Add/Remove, so I was assuming that it did get downloaded and installed properly, but there was some glitch making MS think that it wasn't there. Am I wrong? Should I be able to see it somewhere other than Add/Remove?

Go to Window Update> Options > Review your update history on the left side of screen.

It shows up on my Add/Remove also....but, the only way I could keep the little shield from being down in the right corner and having this update wanting to download and install over and over is to hide it. What you did by clicking on custom installation and doing it that way was essentially hiding it. They tell me from Microsoft that when this happens with this particular update, there is a dll missing. For the life of me, I can't figure it out. I haven't had time to study this last e-mail from them, but they don't want us to hide it like we have done. At the first of the week, I'll try studying up on that last e-mail from them and see if I can figure it out. I hate to do too much because when their first tech sent me instructions, I had to take my computer to the shop. The tech there couldn't figure it out from his instructions either and thusly we hid it so it wouldn't keep coming back over and over :o(

Tumblenweed....I've done that...it says that I have hidden a critical update...

I dont have xp nor that problem but a quick read at a mvp site , in a nutshell says,, if you have the constant updating it happens because the installer aimed a setting at a non-existing key... so make a simple .reg file , right click & merge.. is the fix.

=====================================================
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer]
"HonorAutoRunSetting"=dword:00000001

=============================================

Mikie...you're going to think I'm really dense, but I don't understand. I don't have a Regristy Editor, and you all tell us not to monkey with the registry. Where do I find what you are talking about to use the right click?

copy the above text, in-between the ==== double lines,, but not the double lines themselfs.

Paste it into NOTEPAD or paste as a text file onto your desktop and name it something like regFix33.reg .... when you right click on a anyname.reg file you should see 'merge' as one of the options up on the top area.

That just changes a simple key value.
For some reason the update installs the correct files on your computer but the configuration used a vista path in the registry by accident on that one item.

Important to make the text file ONLY with a text editor... not wordpad or some other program... Notepad works fine.

I am wondering if those of you that have this issue have installed SP3 yet?

I installed SP3 quite some time ago. I ordered the disc and all went well with that one. This is the first one I've had a problem with. Mikie...I'll try and work on that tomorrow and see what happens....just got home from a long trip today and I'm too tired to think about it. Well, I guess I'm not too tired to "think" about it because I checked this post out :o)

Mikie, before I do this, should I put the update back out of where it is hidden, or leave it where it is? After I do this, should I then try the download and install again or will this take care of it since I have downloaded it and installed it before? It is listed as installed on Add/Remove

I'd leave it hidden and see if it magically disappears.

Not positive, but think that the next time Windows Updates looks at your computer for its needs, you shouldnt need that update & then the update should disappear from the hidden list.

Awww.. IE8 install stole my spell checker !

WoW!!! Thank you Mikie...I've been agonizing over this for quite some time!! I checked my updates and there was nothing there...I checked in hidden updates and it isn't there either. The only thing I didn't do and I saw no reason to try it. I didn't click to restore all hidden updates....Thank you again!!!

Welcome...
Those fixes wanting you to search and verify core versions and dates when win updates already gave everybody the correct files and versions. Seemed like a good way to waste time and confuse people to me.

Well, that was fun for a while, but it was short lived :o(
I finally got around to putting Malwarebytes on my computer and ran it as directed....it found 14 incidents that were marked in red. I removed the selected items and it put that update back in the hidden area of my updates...it's baaaack :o(

I was on the phone this morning with Microsoft tech support for two and a half hours :o( The first hour, the tech jumped me through the hoops I had already gone through...the first thing he tried was to uninstall and reinstall it...oh if it had just been that easy! Then, we did all the other things suggested by everyone on this forum already...then he put me through to someone who may have known more....at least they said it was a higher department in tech support than I was at first talking to. Ultimatley, he had me do what he called an alternative update to KB967715. He said KB967715 wasn't compapible with my system and this other update should take care of the problem....so far so good with it.

Surely hope that takes care of the problem for you. I know you've been ready to pull your hair out over this situation. Aren't computers wonderful? :-)

Wish I had read the comments about IE8 before I downloaded it....I'm sort of sick of computers today