>Since I reinstalled Windows XP Pro SP2, I have found that the Windows Update always fails. If I go at WindowsUpdate.com or from the Windows interface, this will always fail. After it says that new updates are ready to be installed, it will try to install all of them and will return a failure status on all of them after a while. This happens on the Express or Custom mode. It will also happen on a single file or all of them.
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>The only way for me to install of the updates is to search on Google for the KB number, locate that file on Microsoft server, download it and install it.
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>Anyone would know what I should do to resolve that?

When applying updates to new XP SP2 machines what I do is:

- immediately go to Microsoft Update within the Windows Update page
- some ActiveXs need to be installed
- do the Express update. It works for some time (depending on hardware, up to 15 minutes or so) then returns a list of between 1 and 3 updates that need to be installed - typically, Windows Installer 3.1, Windows Genuine Advantage, and an XP update.
- go ahead and let it do these updates
- after a reboot, go into Microsoft Update from the Start Menu
- Express should show about 80 updates (that's what I was seeing as of a couple of weeks ago)
- download and install these (takes an hour and change)
- one of the updates is IE7, you have to manually answer some dialogs or the updates hang at that point

You are, of course, running updates as a local or domain Administrator.

Another thing to be aware of is http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927891

If you're on a domain and using WSUS there are other issues as well (which the above link may or may not address).