Here's one last problem. After I downloaded SP3 and upgraded to IE7, the IE
icon that's to the far left of the URL, and is next to every IE Bookmark on
your Favorites, is not the IE icon anymore. It's that weird icon you get when
you have a file, but no program to support it? Know what I mean? It's white
colored and it looks like a corner of a piece of paper is folded over? Get
me? How do I get the IE icon back on the address bar next to the URL, and in
my Bookmarks?
Thanks.
Tom

"Daave" wrote:

Glad to hear you had success!

"Tom B." wrote in message
...
Hey Daave.
So I installed SP3 last night. No huge problems. It was a trial and
error
ordeal at first. Initially, I couldn't disable my peripherals.
Wouldn't let
me until I did the Clean Boot thing. That was frustrating. Besides
that,
everything worked smooth.
I cleared up about 6.5 G's hard drive space and that was plenty.
Here's one weird thing that's going on. When I attempt to log in to
Microsoft Newsgroup, after entering my password, I get the Page Cannot
Be
Displayed page and I have to hit the back button three times, and then
I'm
logged in. Weird, huh?
Besides that, everything seems cool.
Thanks for all your invaluable assistance.
Sincerely,
Tom

"Daave" wrote:

"Tom B." wrote in message
...
Allright Daave. Here's what's happening.
I utilized the information given by both you and the other
responder
named
nass. I deleted the subfolders in C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution.

It's important that you do this proper way. This is how you should do
it:

(Courtesy of PA Bear)

1. Stop the Automatic Updates service:

Start Run (type in) services.msc [OK]
Double-click Automatic Updates Click on Stop
(Stopping the service will take a moment)

[note: this should accomplish the same thing that nass told you to do
with the net start wuauserv and net start bits commands]

2. Delete the contents of the Download folder:

Start Run (type in) %windir%\SoftwareDistribution [OK]
Open the Download folder and delete its contents
Close the window.

[or you can show hidden files and navigate to
C:\WINDOWS\SofwareDistribution\Download and manually delete all of
the
subfolder's content -- thank you, MowGreen! -- make sure you empty
the
Recylce Bin]

3. Start the Automatic Updates service:

Start Run (type in) services.msc [OK]
Double-click Automatic Updates Click on Start
(Starting the service will take a moment)

Personally, I hate Automatic Updates, so I do the following:

Start | Control Panel | Automatic Updates:
Turn off Automatic Updates

In fact, doing this *before* Step 1 will probably work better,
assuming
you currently have either the "Automatic (recommended)" or "Download
updates for me, but..." setting selected.

Once everything is the way you want it, you'll be much happier if you
later change this setting to "Notify me, but don't automatically
download or install them." This will give you more control, and
you'll
never again get the type of situation you currently find yourself in.

Finally, I would only download and install *Critical* updates.

Once I did
that, I executed that .bat file. I cleared up alot of space on my
hard
drive
by transferring mp3's and mpeg's over to my external drive.

Good. Still need more info, though. How large is your C: drive and
how
much free space do you have on it?

I downloaded all the updates, and they downloaded fine.

"All the updates?" That troubles me. If your goal is to install
either
SP2 or SP3 (and as I suggested before, you'll be a lot better off
installing SP3, since it includes SP2 plus a whole mess of subsequent
updates), then you shouldn't be installing updates for SP1. It won't
necessarily hurt anything, but it sure is a waste of time and effort!

I then attempted to download SP2 once more, and THE SAME THING
HAPPENED
AGAIN! It stopped 3/4 of the way through, and I had to shut the
whole
deal
down.

It is almost always best to download the standalone installer and
install offline. My guess is you have some program running (probably
antivirus) that is interfering with your download. If you look at my
other post, you will see that configuring a clean boot eliminates
this
issue. Once more, since you are going through all this effort and
since
you will need to install SP3 in the not-too-distant future *anyway*,
you
might as well download and install SP3.

You may download the standalone installation file
WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe

from:

http://www.microsoft.com/DownLoads/d...displaylang=en

If, instead, you want to create your own Service Pack 3 installation
*CD*, you may download the .iso file from

http://www.microsoft.com/DownLoads/d...displaylang=en

and burn the CD from the .iso file (most CD burning programs will do
this, including Nero and CDBurnerXP).

But either method will work fine, and it's a lot better than relying
on
Windows Update!

Argghhh!! I feel like I'm in this weird limbo inbetween SP's right
now.
I ran disk cleanup and cleared out all that failed SP2 stuff.
Now I guess I'm ready to try and download SP3. I don't seem to have
a
choice
here.

You have a choice. But IMO it's wiser to upgrade to SP3 directly.

What do you know about that Dial-A-Fix tool? I read this info link
and
it
seems risky to me?
http://wiki.lunarsoft.net/wiki/Dial-a-fix

It might address your problem. It shouldn't hurt. But nothing is
foolproof. If you are worried, at the very least create a System
Restore
point. Better: make an image of your C: drive, which I would do
anyway
before undertaking any significant upgrade (like upgrading to SP23).

I'll go ahead with the SP3 download after I hear back from you.

Good luck. Please keep us posted.