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Does anyone know why Dial-a-fix sometimes gets an "unspecified error" while trying to unregister MSXML3.DLL? It seems to be new because it's never done that in the past. Apparently you can immediately try it again and Dial-a-fix will then be able to unregister/re-register it. It's weird.

(Update: see the comments for a possible explanation. Short version: just run the same parts of Dial-a-fix again and you shouldn't get the error. If you still have trouble with Windows Updates, try clicking "Flush SoftwareDistribution".)

Superfail part 1
Superfail part 2

Thanks to astute reader Nate Coffey and Dial-a-fix, we've found another DLL registration bug.

The current version of wuaueng.dll provided to Windows 2000 service pack 4 clients has a bug in its DllInstallServer.

In the first picture is a "before" screenshot that shows that all of the SvcHost key values are here. This is a freshly installed Windows 2000 machine that only has Service Pack 4:

In this second picture, I have visited Windows Update, gotten the latest Windows Update client, closed my browser, and then unregistered the DLL using regsvr32 /u:

In this third picture, I have re-registered the DLL using regsvr32 /i, but it caused an error (0×80070057) and only one key was put back. The netsvcs key is lost at this point. In order to fix this, merge this default SvcHost key .reg file.

The error code 0×80070057 is E_INVALIDARG, or invalid parameters/arguments.

The current version of Dial-a-fix will accidentally trigger this because of the malformed DllInstallServer in wuaueng.dll. Once a new, fixed version of the Windows Update client is pushed out, Dial-a-fix will be able to help you again. I'll be filing this as a bug with Microsoft – I hope they fix it.

Edit: be sure to read Superfail part 2 for the solution for afflicted machines.