A few days ago I came across a strange issue with some Windows XP clients and Windows Update Server Services 3.0. The XP client PC’s were mysteriously disappearing from the Update Services Management Console. For example, when one client made a connection to the WSUS server to check for new updates, the other one will disappear from the console. This behavior could be replicated when running the C:>wuauclt /detectnow command on one of the affected client PC’s. In my case the problem occurred to clients that were installed from a clone image. The master image of the Windows XP clients was probably updated through WSUS and then cloned, leaving the registration entries in the register. Here is a small script that I used to correct this:
REG DELETE HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionWindowsUpdate /v SusClientIdValidation /f
REG DELETE HKLMSOFTWAREMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionWindowsUpdate /v SusClientId /f
net stop wuauserv
rmdir /s /q c:windowssoftwaredistribution
net start wuauserv
wuauclt /resetauthorization /detectnow
Copy and paste this script to a batch or cmd file and run it on the affected client PC’s. This should resolve the problem.
Tested on Windows XP Service Pack 3.
Cheers!
– Marek