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I've tried installing a fresh install of Windows XP SP3 32bit. Two different licensed disks. After install, through days of trying every solution I could find, I still could not get Microsoft update to work. Anyone else have this problem? Is it even possible to use Microsoft Update in a VM environment?

Windows Update works just fine in VMs; it's been a few months now that Windows Update is having some issues that brings an svchost process up to 100% CPU usage and the updates do not work. I have disabled windows auto updates on two of my PC boxes running XPsp3 due to this issue, although my XPsp3 VM works fine with windows update still. If you google it, you will see numerous reports on the issue, dating back to 2008, although I did not manage to find a clear solution on the issue still.

That said, I don't think there's an issue with the VM.

With XP SP3, Windows Update does work, although the initial updates may take extremely long time to process (hours on a fast PC). The symptom is svchost.exe occupying 100% of one CPU (goes away if Windows Update is disabled).

With older Windows XP (and Windows 2000) versions, Windows Update no longer works out of the box and must first be manually updated, since Microsoft changed the protocol in June 2012 or so. Windows Update says that it needs to be updated, but the update process fails.

This is just Microsoft's gentle reminder to upgrade

Since I stumped on the windows update issue on my XPsp3 fresh installation, here's a solution:

First, install IE8 from microsoft.
Next, search for "KB2888505" on the internet and download the IE cumulative update (I would post the u-r-l but I still cannot, this is stupid).
Restart your VM.

Windows update should work fine now.

michaln wrote:This is just Microsoft's gentle reminder to upgrade

This is actually Microsoft's way to boost Win7 and Win8 sales, since so much people staid on WinXP...

Thank you all.

thanar wrote:Since I stumped on the windows update issue on my XPsp3 fresh installation, here's a solution:

First, install IE8 from microsoft.
Next, search for "KB2888505" on the internet and download the IE cumulative update (I would post the u-r-l but I still cannot, this is stupid).
Restart your VM.

Windows update should work fine now.

michaln wrote:This is just Microsoft's gentle reminder to upgrade

This is actually Microsoft's way to boost Win7 and Win8 sales, since so much people staid on WinXP...

THIS SOLUTION WORKED PERFECTLY. THANK YOU ALL!!!!!!