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Windows  Automatic Update or Microsoft Update web site getting Error 403 - Access Forbidden
12/11/2009

When using Automatic Update or the Windows/Microsoft Update web site, you might received the error "403 - Access forbidden - You do not have permission to view this directory or page using the credentials that you supplied."  We are seeing many reports of people getting this error since yesterday.

This appears to be caused by a corrupted update to a Windows Update Agent file.

The Windows update log file is in "%windir%\Windowsupdate.log".

In the log file it might say:
FATAL: Update required for C:\WINDOWS\system32\wuweb.dll: target version =
7.2.6001.788, required version = 7.4.7600.226 

What Should You Do Now

If you see this error, just update your Windows Update Agent to the last version with the /wuforce parameter.  (If you are doing this as a batch, you might want to use the /quiet and /norestart switches.)

To obtain the latest version of the Windows Update Agent, see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949104.  

To reinstall the Windows Update Agent, download the relevant file from the appropriate links provided in the article above and save it to a drive.

If you saved the file to the D: drive, click Start, click Run, type: "D:\WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe /wuforce" (without quotations) and then press Enter to install the Windows Update engine.  Instead of "D:\", use the path where you downloaded the Windows Update Agent installer.

Note: There is a space between "D:\WindowsUpdateAgent30-x86.exe" and "/wuforce"

General Updating Windows Update Agent Instructions are available from
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa387285(VS.85).aspx.

You might have to removed the Microsoft Update installation and then reload Microsoft Update to get it to work:

To change from using Microsoft Update to Windows Update:

  1. Go to the Windows Update web site (http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com)

  2. In the menu on the left, select "Change settings".
 
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the page and enable the option "Disable Microsoft
      Update software and let me use Windows Update only".  Then click
      the "Apply changes now" button.
     
  4. You might get a Automatic Updates dialog: "Windows Automatic Updates
      will not be able to deliver updates from Microsoft Update.  Are you sure 
      you want to continue?"  Click the "Yes" button.
     
To Change from using Windows Update to Microsoft Update:

  5. Reload the Windows Update site.
 
  6. At the top of the middle section you will see "Get Microsoft Update today!" 
     Click "Go".
     
  7. On the "Welcome to Microsoft Update" page, click the "Start Now" button.
 
  8. On the "Review the license agreement" page, read the agreement and then 
      click the "Continue" button.
     
  9. You will then be able to check for updates by clicking the
      "Check for Updates" button.

Professional Services

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