W7 Updates May 2011

This failing update issue has recurred in the past couple of days, update no.s KB2541014 & KB2467174 keep looping & failing, the former is for Win7 64bit which I'm running the latter is MS Visual C++ SP1, whats funny is that a similar update for Visual C++ installed successfully earlier today, later though an SP1 update for MS Visual failed! Not that I even know what MS Visual is or does, I dont even use it. But it's causing me a right 'ol pain in the ar*e mind! I've just hidden them for now I just cant be faffed to keep dealing with this issue particularly when nobody seems to know how to reolve it, least of all Microsoft...!

I managed to fix an error relating to installation of Update for Windows 7 (KB2529073) which I thought I'd share in case it works for others. I'd used the auto update for a few weeks but always failed installation with an unknown error (Code 8024200D).

I'd tried the MS systems readiness tool a couple of time and that didn't work either. I'm using a Dell Precision m6300 with Win7 Ultimate (32-bit) and have NO usb devices plugged in that might interfere with the USB driver so surprised it didn't work.

Eventual solution was as follows:
- follow the MS link to download the update/manual installation option for this patch. I did this in IE (v9) just to make it easier in terms of MS Genuine Advantage plugin etc though not normally my browser of choice.
- download the relevant patch (for me it was Windows6.1-KB2529073-x86.msu).
- close/exit programs open in the system tray that might be using or monitoring usb, I did this specifically in case my Sony Ericsson phone sync software was interfering with USB in any way, but I closed a few other things too.
- run the patch.
- reboot as requested. patch configured ok.
- after restart, went to Windows update and it showed update failed, this might be a cached copy of previous fail maybe as when I click "Check for Updates" this went to Up to Date (clean bill of health) without any further installation.

I'm afraid I didn't do this methodically enough to know precisely what the cause was but my hunch is it was something to do with the Sony Ericsson phone software in my case but I hope this info helps some people. As well as unplugging USB devices before trying to install this patch, I suggest people also close system tray programs that might be using USB (phones, cameras printers etc, you know the list).

Good luck!