Hello Everyone...
Just starting to post in forums, so your patience and assistance are greatly appreciated as I learn the ropes.
The problem being experienced is the inability to install an upgrade to IE6, namely IE7 or IE8. The error displayed in IE7_main.log reads, "Couldn't initialize the Windows Update Manager, HRESULT:0x80040154." The same error displays in IE8_main.log when attempting an install.
System is WXPSp3, no 3rd party FW or AV; Windows FW disabled. Updated Windows Installer 4.5; no change. Latest updates installed with exception of Internet Explorer 8 (desired). Attempted installation through Windows Update (WSUS); failed. Downloaded IE7 local and executed; failed. Downloaded IE7 local, extracted, updated iecustom.inf by removing iecustom.dll references with no success (on execution of the update.exe, received crypto verification problem). Attempted with IE8, also to no avail. Local executions were "unblocked" from execution.
This system is not a workstation but rather a Network Analyzer (Test Equipment) from Agilent Technologies with an embedded OS installation. This system was received back after an image flash from Agilent in April, when the problem was first observed. This system is not capable of general web navigation nor does it receive email. It is for this and other reasons that there is no 3rd party FW or AV. It does however require the ability to display content that is no longer able to be displayed under the IE6 platform. Of course, out of an abundance of caution, I have already checked the system for malware and the like in the off chance the image from which it was flashed was compromised. Other systems received akin to this system haven't had any problems in the upgrade.
My greatest suspicion is that I have missed an update prerequisite that I cannot pin-point. Hopefully the details of this problem can help others point me to a solution.
Related article already reviewed and largely executed without improvement.
How to troubleshoot common Windows Update, Microsoft Update, and Windows Server Update Services installation issues
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/906602
The installation fails, and an error code is logged in the Windows Update log
file when you try to install Windows XP Service Pack 3 from Windows Update
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949386
When you try to install updates from the Windows Update Web site or from the
Microsoft Update Web site, you may receive a "0x80246007" error code
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958042
Upgrade Internet Explorer 6 to Internet Explorer 7 on deployed systems
http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/embeddedwindowscomponents/thread/54fcc031-cc5b-4e55-bfeb-b326177eb9ed
Likely paralysis from analysis, but what am I missing? If I didn't include a piece of information that you might need, please let me know. Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance for your help.
-KES
Kelly Schmidt (Mr.) Systems Administrator Radio Design Group, Inc.