Sometimes on Job (one of the Windows 2003 servers), the Windows automatic updates stop working...the little icon in the tray never shows up. Here is the solution:

Method 1: Register the Wups2.dll file in Windows

To register the Wups2.dll file in Windows, follow these steps:

1. Stop the Automatic Updates service. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
   2. At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
      • net stop wuauserv
2. Register the Wups2.dll file. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER:
      • regsvr32 %windir%\system32\wups2.dll
   2. Click OK on each verification message that you receive.
3. Start the Automatic Updates service. To do this, type the following command at the command prompt, and then press ENTER:
   • net start wuauserv
4. Exit the command prompt. To do this type exit, and then press ENTER.

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Another similar solution was a bit more complex (but I think the solution above works fine, so only try this if the first one doesn't work):

From http://www.msfn.org/board/Windows-Update-Notificati-t73279.html

I maintain about 40 different computers and about half a dozen of them now exhibit this system where the update shield icon does not display in the notification area. Some are running Windows XP and some are running Windows Server 2003. These machines run mission critical operations 24/7 and are at remote locations so having them install and reboot automatically is not acceptable. The machines are all set up to automatically download but not install the updates. I remotely log into them, shut down the running applications in an orderly fashion, then apply the updates and reboot at prescribed times.

The machines actually do download the updates, because there are notices in the event log from the Windows Update Agent with Event ID 17 showing "Installation Ready". Also, if I go the the shutdown dialog, one of the options is to install updates and shut down. Since these are remote machines, I have no way of turning them back on. Too bad there isn't an option to install updates and restart.

In the past, I was able to correct the problem by stopping the automatic update service and deleting two folders, but that no longer seems to work. By the way those folders are

• %windir%\SoftwareDistribution

• %windir%\system32\CatRoot2

This is what finally worked for me.

Stop the Windows update service from the command prompt with

• NET STOP WUAUSERV

Run REGEDIT and navigate to

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\Auto Update

Delete the BalloonTime and BalloonType values, or if you want to keep a record of them, rename them to BalloonTimeX and BalloonTypeX.

The BalloonTime seems to be stored in GMT.

Note that the dates below are in international format

• YYYY-MM-DD HH:mm:ss with a 24 hour clock.

• Set DownloadExpirationTime (if present) to a date in the past.

• Set NextDetectionTime to a minute or two in the future.

• As far as I can tell, this value is in local time and not GMT.

Restart the Windows update service from the command prompt with

• NET START WUAUSERV

After a minute or two, the update shield appears on the taskbar, then I was able to proceed with the update installation.