Question : Windows Update won't work after upgrade from XP Home to XP Professional

I have a Gateway Desktop 700 series that is about 6 years old.
The system has two physical hard drives.
Drive C is about 114GB
Drive F is about 130GB
Drives D and E are cd and dvd drives.

This installation of XP Home has %SystemRoot% pointing to C:\Winnt instead of the C:\Windows folder.

I had been putting off upgrading the XP Professional because this system, for all intents and purposes...this system sucks and if I wasn't such a cheap bastard, I should probably just go out and buy a new computer for myself.  And if my wife wasn't so attached to her applications (which can't be replaced because they were "borrowed" from another person.), I would recommend reformatting the entire drive and installing XP Professional from scratch.  But as far as users go...my wife is the most demanding and least forgiving.

After performing the upgrade install to XP Professional, Windows Update wouldn't work.  The attempts to update to Windows Installer 3.1 and Genuine Advantage are unsuccessful.

To attempt and correct this problem on my own, I performed the following steps.

1. Create a folder called "C:\TMPDOWNLOAD"
2. Download WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe to "C:\TMPDOWNLOAD"
3. Download WindowsXP-KB927891-v3-x86-ENU.exe to "C:\TMPDOWNLOAD"
4. Reboot into Safe Mode
5. Delete the SoftwareDistribution folder from C:\Winnt (would be C:\Windows in other computers).
6. Reboot Normally
7. Start/Run "C:\TMPDOWNLOAD\WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe /wuforce
8. Reboot Normally
9. Start/Run "C:\TMPDOWNLOAD\WindowsXP-KB927891-v3-x86-ENU.exe
At this point, the installation fails and exits pointing to some stupid log file which says absolutely nothing relevant.  If this file would succeed, then I would be able to go on to the last step, which is installing the Installer 3.1 from the Microsoft Update site.  But everytime I do the windows upate, the installer and genuine advantage fail to install.

You know the saying that the definition of insanity is to keep trying the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result...well...I'm insane.

Other things I did in between attempts to duplicate the process.... I uninstalled the Macafee 8.5i corporate edition Antivirus software...no effect.

Other weirdness....after doing the upgrade install, the audio drivers somehow got yellow exclamation points, and I had to remove and reinstall the drivers for the sound to work again....Now the sound works fine.

Updated Java to the latest 6.2

Systems is still running IE6 (upgrading to 7 was going to be part of the system updates...which of course won't work!)

Help!!

Answer : Windows Update won't work after upgrade from XP Home to XP Professional

Here are some things you can try:

(1) Check both the date and time on your system. If they are off by more than a few minutes, updates will sometimes fail to install.
(2) Examine the file C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\ReportingEvents.log (with Notepad) to see if there is an explanation of why the update failed.
(3) Make sure you are logged in with Administrator privileges. Most security updates require it.
(4) Work through the troubleshooting tips at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/906602.
(5) Also see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/883821.

Can you post the exact error you get when you try the update (i.e. the part where "...installation fails and exits pointing to some stupid log file which says absolutely nothing..")