Windows Update – Code 57A

If you have attempted to install the latest round of Office updates via Windows Update, there is a very good chance of seeing this error code.

There is a fix, but it is quite severe and may leave you with the task of creating new user accounts if your computer is set up for multiple users.

It requires

1. the downloading and installation of a utility
2. the ability to search for, find, open and understand the first line in a log file (optional)
3. the creation of a ‘batch’ file
4. the ‘nerve’ to run the batch file

Are you still in the game?

 

Getting ready..

The file to be downloaded and installed is called SubInACL.exe and can be downloaded from this web site

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=E8BA3E56-D8FE-4A91-93CF-ED6985E3927B&displaylang=en

Now run a search on MSI*.log

If you have attempted to install the Office update ‘today’, when the search has finished, look for a log file dated with today’s date. Open it and it will tell you in the first line which registry key has been causing the problem.

When you create your ‘batch’ file, you can either include all of the registry (as shown) or you can just fix the registry key set as indicated in the msi*.log file. Personally, I would ‘fix’ all of the registry.

 

To create the batch file, open NOTEPAD, then copy and paste the text between the broken lines into it. When pasted in, edit the blank lines out.

You will then need to ‘save as’ resetreg.bat or something similar. The important bit is that it is saved with the ‘bat’ extension.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

cd /d “%ProgramFiles%\Windows Resource Kits\Tools”

subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f

subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CURRENT_USER /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f

subinacl /subkeyreg HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f

subinacl /subdirectories %SystemDrive% /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f

subinacl /subdirectories %windir%|*.* /grant=administrators=f /grant=system=f

secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\inf\defltbase.inf /db defltbase.sdb /verbose

pause

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

 

This is it..

OK, you have installed ‘subinacl.exe’, you have created your batch file, and are ready to go.

Locate your newly created batch file, right click on it and select ‘ run as administrator’. A CMD window will appear automatically and the process will start. When finished, the CMD window will automatically close.

You can now reboot your computer and then head off to Windows Update and install the Office update.