Windows Automatic Updates Service is Missing

One of my customers computers was infected by an Autorun worm over the weekend. The worm discovered by antivirus products in the middle of March 2011 scares customers by dropping files on the hard drive such as

• myporno.avi
• setup[4 random number]
• myporno.avi
• pornmovs   

However, this isn't the worst problem. The malware appears to have shut down the Windows Automatic Updates service. In fact, it appears to have completely deleted the service from the Windows XP machine I was working on.

The Windows Security Center shows the Automatic Updates service as being turned off, but the fact is the service is gone from the computer. Although I dont know for sure this autorun.aabl worm was the cause for the updates not working, it is very likely.

In case this situation happens to you, follow the steps below to reactivate the Automatic Updates service and get your computer up-to-date again.


For Windows XP

1) Click on Start
2) Click on Run
3) In the run window, type CMD and press Enter
4) In the black command prompt window, type the following command and press Enter

REGSVR32 %SystemRoot%\System32\WUAUENG.DLL

For Windows Vista/7

1) Click on the Start Orb
2) Click on All Programs
3) Click on Accessories
4) Right click on the Command Prompt icon and choose Run As Administrator
5) Iin the command prompt window, type the following command and press Enter

REGSVR32 %SystemRoot%\System32\WUANUENG.dll

Although the service should now restart on its own, its probably a good idea to also restart your computer now.

After the machine has restarted open the Security Center is Control Panel and verify that the Automatic Updates option is now working.