Windows XP - Forcing Windows Update when faced with Error number: 0x80244019, My solution.

This should be of interest to anyone who has recently reinstalled Windows XP and is trying to use the Windows Update service but having problems.
I have done this a few times in recent months and my method works reliably. If it works for you then please leave a comment.You will need an original XP Installation CD and a valid genuine KEY to go with it.

I had an old slow laptop (that is not compatible with windows 7 and definitely not Windows 8) and wanted to reformat the hard disk and install a fresh copy of Windows XP so it would run faster. I had an original Windows XP Home edition CD with the KEY.
During the XP Setup process I formatted the hard disk and installed XP Home, It was XP SP2 so was going to need lots of updates.
So I ran Internet Explorer and went to the "Tools" drop-down menu and clicked on "Windows Update"
I clicked yes to install the Active-X plug in and then clicked the Express button, after a few seconds
it showed the following error message :

[Error number: 0x80244019]

Windows XP failing on Windows Update with Error number: 0x80244019

This is a common problem people get when trying to install old operating systems like this.

In order to force Windows XP to update you need to do the following :

1) Click on this link to download the updater from Microsoft's website :
go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=91237

The file it downloads is "windowsupdateagent30-x86.exe"

2) Select RUN (or save it and run it yourself)

3) Once installed, reboot the PC and run Internet Explorer again and as before select "Windows Update"

Click the Express button to check for updates.

4) Click Express button again, this time it should find some updates.
One update is a newer version of "windows updater 3.1" and another of these updates is the "Genuine Windows Advantage" so make sure you have used a valid genuine key otherwise you will not be able to update it.

5) Once its installed these updates, reboot the PC

6) Run Internet Explorer again and go to the "Tools" drop-down menu and click on "Windows Update"
And then Express again, now it should find lots of updates in this example it has found 72 Windows Updates.

Windows Update now working fine.

You can now download and install these, This will continue for a while each time rebooting and then going to update again until all the updates have been installed. This process can take a while as Service Pack 3 has to be installed. I think it installed well over 200 updates by the time it had finished.



Hopefully my solution to "Windows not updating" will have been resolved by this.
Leave a comment if it has fixed it for you.

Thanks
Andy