Do you have UAC (User Account Control) enabled?

Why it would just suddenly start affecting Windows Updates now, I can't say... but it *could* cause this type of problem, so it would be worth disabling it, until after the updates have installed successfully?

If you don't use UAC, I'm at a loss, unfortunately :emotion-6:

Do you have UAC (User Account Control) enabled? Why it would just suddenly start affecting Windows Updates now, I can't say... but it *could* cause this type of problem, so it would be worth disabling it, until after the updates have installed successfully?   If you don't use UAC, I'm at a loss, unfortunately :emotion-6:

Real Fireblade-

Thanks much for your very useful advice.  I haven't touched my UAC controls since I got the PC, and when I accessed it, I could not tell if it was activated or not.  Nonetheless, I unchecked the activate box to deactivate it and tried installing the updates again.  This time the updates installed successfully and quickly and I didn't have to turn off my PC's two firewalls.  Although I am happy deactivating the UAC allowed the updates to install properly, I am curious why the UAC would affect update installation.  Can I ask how you considered the UAC to affect the update installation?  In any case, thanks so much again for your fast and successful advice!

PG

I had the EXACT same problem!  Kept getting the 646 error code just recently and it wouldn't install my 37 misc. updates.  The only thing I had changed recently was install Microsoft Office Student Edition.  So strange that it was the exact same situation as the above mentioned!  Anyhow I just tried unchecking my UAC controls as Real Fireblade had mentioned and it worked for me too!  I am sooo... excited!  I too am curious as to why that would affect the installation.   Hmm.. quite strange.  Anyhow, thanks so much to both of you.  I am pretty unknowledgable of computers and was so happy to find a quick and reliable solution to my problem :)

SJ

I had the EXACT same problem!  Kept getting the 646 error code just recently and it wouldn't install my 37 misc. updates.  The only thing I had changed recently was install Microsoft Office Student Edition.  So strange that it was the exact same situation as the above mentioned!  Anyhow I just tried unchecking my UAC controls as Real Fireblade had mentioned and it worked for me too!  I am sooo... excited!  I too am curious as to why that would affect the installation.   Hmm.. quite strange.  Anyhow, thanks so much to both of you.  I am pretty unknowledgable of computers and was so happy to find a quick and reliable solution to my problem :) SJ

Thanks for sharing your experience.  I'm sorry you experienced the same frustration as I, but happy to know you were able to solve it the same way.  I still don't know why unactivating the UAC control would make such a significant difference...but I am happy nonetheless the solution seemed to work so well.

PG

I'm not certain one can correlate this problem by the date alone of Nov 11, 2009.  As I indicated in my original post (see above), my issues with the updates and error code 646 occurred after Nov 13, 2009, but I also note that the problems seem to have occurred after I installed Windows Office Home and Student.  I'm not certain what happened or why the following solution helped, but I still think the most likely reason is recently installed software.  Most importantly, have you tried disabling the UAC (user account control) as recommended by TheRealFireBlade?  This recommendation was the perfect solution for me and apparently for SJast (see above); note that SJast makes no mention of dates.

Good luck!

PG

I have the exact same issue.

After Nov 11th, most updates do not install successfully.  I have a Dell laptop that I'm using.

What works for me is to go to the Microsoft website and download each update manually from there.

I'm wondering why this has suddenly happened since Nov 11th?

I've had the same issues...starting in November...all with MS Office updates. It's wierd. I didn't install anything..updates for these just started to not be installed properly. Contacted MS and they said it was  update components being corrupted. Running their Fix It tool with disabling UAC has helped the past 2 months.

Thanks for the tip.  I too was having the same error issue.  Once I disengaged my UAC I was able to update my windows.

On a side note.  I did not install any other programs in November like some of the other posters had.  My issue just started in November.  End of story.

Hi! I posted earlier if you read up above...  Just wanted to let you know that when I disabled the UAC and installed the updates everything was great!  I immediately went back in after the update was complete and enabled the UAC again.  Since then I have had no further problems with any other updates.  Apparently it was only the one major update back in Nov/Dec. that was affecting all of the other updates to not go through.  I think you'd be safe reactivating your UAC and hopefully you won't have any further problems... if you do just go back in and go throught the process all over!   Good luck!

S.Jast