This turkey snuck on my PC today when I booted for the first time and reeked havoc during the boot phase.
First, i kept alternating btw a blank desktop with my logon music playing eratically. Then I finally end up at the XP signon screen which never appears since I don’t use a logon password. Luckily, the PC allowed me to sign on to XP from there.
Checked the event logs and it stated that Windows Update Agent 7.4.7600.226 installed sucessfully. I re-booted and all appears to be OK at this point. I guess I am one of the luckiy ones, at least so far, based on the horror stories I have read about this WGA gar-barge update.
I assume all the original boot gyrations were due to Comodo’s firewall going bonker’s at boot startup with this update of Windows Update?
Well, looks like I am not out of the woods yet. I tuned off the PC for a while and then started it up again. Booted OK with no hang ups. Then opened Comodo to view active connections and firewall log. Went to shut down those screens as I usually do and Comodo hangs! Shut it down via MS hang app prompt and it still running? Then all of a sudden it disappears entirely from the lower task bar. So I go to send the hung app details to MS and it tells me that I have no internet connection! So I restart Comodo from the desktop and all is fine now. Ran Comodo diagnostics and it tells me everything is fine.
Are you sure Windows Update Agent 7.4.7600.226 is a what we think it is? Try a system restore to see if you can get rid of it.
Where in the logs was the install registered? In the part that tracks the system or the part that tracks applications? The reason I am asking is to see whether this was a legit Windown installation thing or may be a rogue AV.
To see if it is a rogue use Malwarebytes Antimalware and Super Antispyware to see.
Ahead of everyone on the malware and AV scanning. That is always the first thing I do when I suspect a bad guy has invaded my PC. All scans came back clean.
The Windows Update Agent 7.4.7600.226 showed up in the system log. I checked it out with some other utility software I have and it looks legit.
My OS is XP SP3 if that makes a difference to anyone. This same update agent is also being applied to Vista OS’s. I did do a web search and people are having problems with it. It has been released for a while. Don’t know why it took so long to hit my PC.
One problem is after doing a system restore, it has been noted the stinking mother update of all Win updates reinstalls itself all over again. This even appears to happen if you block all Win Updates. Looks like this update is more MS spyware for WGA than an actual system update. Guess that option won’t help. This update has also changed download options; such as from inform and ask about downloading Win Updates to just auto downloading them.
PC booted fine today so I guess the problem is resolved. Also no problems with the Comodo firewall.
A suggestion is Comodo tighten up it’s default Windows Updater rule to not allow MS updates without asking.
I was hung up in a loop after downloading a Windows update.The loop kept taking me to the update’s stage 3 of 3. I powered down but I was still in the loop. Using my Vista boot-up disc I reached System Repair. This totally removed my update history except for the entry showing Windows Update Agent 7.4.7600.226 had been installed. My computer now was bootable and so far the problem has been fixed.
M.$ install their sneakiest downloads when you relinquish control by shutting down.
My desktop has my special Purge & Shut-down link that runs a *.CMD script that invokes the shut-down,
BUT FIRST it purges C:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download
so all the stuff they dumped on me is eliminated before it can be installed.
I do of course have to remember not to Purge & Shut-down when I really want an M.$. Update,
but 29 days out of 30 I am worry free.
