I recently installed a new Windows 2003 server and right off the bat started doing the Windows Updates. Even with Service Pack 2 installed, this process takes a while. Normally it wouldn’t be a big deal, but after letting the updates run on automatic for a while… Internet Explorer blew up.
During one set of updates, the system installed Internet Explorer 8, nothing wrong with that. Unfortunately when I launched it, to do more updates, all sorts of strange things started happening. One of the error messages I got was when I tried to hit
Update.Microsoft.com; the system said “The requested lookup key was not found in any active activation context“. That’s a new one on me.
Fortunately, it turns out this issue is easy to fix (albeit a bit time consuming):
- Enter Add/Remove Programs (Start > Settings > Control Panel)
- Find Internet Explorer 7 or Internet Explorer 8
- Click Uninstall
- Reboot
- Re-Launch Internet Explorer (now back to 6)
- Run Windows Update again
Done. Yea, it isn’t exactly hard to fix: uninstall and re-install. It is slightly annoying that this can’t simply be “repaired”, and silly that it happens in the first place. But what do you expect? It is Microsoft after all.