This is more of an irritation than a critical problem as this hotfix
largely addresses WordPad vulnerabilities, and I don't use WordPad.

After a repair reinstall of Win XP SP2 MCE about 6-8 weeks ago. I went
to Windows Update to install the appropriate hotfixes, but I kept
getting unspecified failures telling me that the updates (maybe 7 or 8
in all) failed. I tried a couple more times with the same result. I
then tried to isolate the problem using the "half-split" method of
installing the updates a few at a time, which resulted in all but one
of the hotfixes being installed. The offending hotfix generates the
following error response whether I try to install it via Windows
Update or via the downloaded ENU.exe file:

---------------------------
KB885836 Setup Error
---------------------------
KB885836 Setup could not backup registry key

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Hotfix\KB885836

to file C:\WINDOWS\$NtUninstallKB885836$\reg00001. 5: Access is
denied.
---------------------------
Abort Retry Ignore
---------------------------

I googled for "KB885836 Setup could not backup registry key" and for
"KB885836 Setup Error" and got a few hits, but didn't find anything
promising.

I tried the "Add/Remove" applet, but that hotfix isn't on the list.

Okay, so I think I'll just go in and delete the key manually. No go.
Can't kill it, and none of my unlock and delete context tools for
dealing with unruly files are available for registry entries. I even
tried doing it through regedit after booting into safe mode, but that
doesn't work.

Deleting the $ntUninstall directory is trivial. It reappears when I
make another install attempt, but it's useless in terms of trying to
install or uninstall the hotfix.

This is my personal home computer. It's set up as an Administrator
account by default. I did scan gpedit.msc to see if anything jumped
out at me as irregular in group policies, but I didn't see anything
obvious.

This one particular issue is the only time I've run across an "Access
Denied" problem, so it seems to be pretty specific. ISTM that
something probably went south with this one hotfix the first time I
tried Windows Update, and whatever happened is preventing me from
fixing it. I could be wrong, but I think if I could find a way to
delete the registry entry, that would let me start over from scratch.
Alternatively, there may be some files hidden away somewhere from the
botched istall, but I just don't know where to look. If I did, I'd
use something like MoveOnBoot or a recovery CD with NTFS4DOS to wipe
them out if necessary.

What am I missing? Any ideas? As I said in the beginning, it's a
minor issue, so something like another repair install is out of the
question. If it comes to that, I'll just drop it and move on, but I
figured I'd ask here as a last resort before giving up.

--
Ron M.
(I filter Googlespam)

"Ron May" <mayron@hotmail.com> wrote in message
newscdil397jahrtpscoudonkoicqihta0mu3@4ax.com...

snip


"KB" indicates it is an MS knowledgebase article. And this is
the result for that KB article: http://tinyurl.com/2ks5p5

That hotfix is to plug a security issue, you may have a
corrupt or compromised registry?

In this advanced search link of the KB, type *exactly* the wording
of any error messages, include code, numbers, spaces etc.
Enter into the advanced search the error message(s) exactly
as they appear on screen:
http://support.microsoft.com/search/?adv=

On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 12:44:18 -0000, "ded" <witheld@witheld.invalid>
wrote:

I know how to research KB articles. That's how I knew that the hotfix
was related to a wordpad vilnerability as I indicated in the first
line of my post. For the record, though, I tried your suggestion and
got the following result:

<QUOTE>
There are no documents that match your search for "KB885836 Setup
could not backup registry key"
Please try a different search above or try one of the related links
below.
</QUOTE>

<QUOTE>
There are no documents that match your search for "KB885836 Setup
Error"
Please try a different search above or try one of the related links
below.
</QUOTE>

Not much help there, I'm afraid, but thanks for trying.

--
Ron M.
(I filter Googlespam)

Ron May wrote:

permissions/ownership dialog? Maybe the key has not listed the admins group
or admin isn't listed as owner ("advanced" button)?
Try to take ownership of that key.

On Sun, 09 Dec 2007 10:46:26 +0100, wisdomkiller & pain
<nomail.20.eatallspam@spamgourmet.com> wrote:

That's EXACTLY it. No one was listed as owner. Had to fiddle with it
repeatedly, and work with the "special permissions" several times from
several angles, and had to try the hotfix install twice, but the end
result was SUCCESS! You da MAN! Thanks!

--
Ron M.
(I filter Googlespam)