What timing. Fresh install of xp media center 2005 with sp2.
-installed sp3
-installed ie8
-windows update web page wouldn't work. had to let auto update download a couple of things first before it would work. the fix it linked to the issue wouldn't even fix it. Though this could be related to the oddities that come with the bastered that is xp media center.
first round after a couple of behind the scenes auto updates is 161.4 MB not including 4.0 search, bing bars and crap, live essentials nor .net 1.1 or 3 yet. 133 updates selected.
for the fun of it, i'll edit this post as i move forward this evening.
Reboot 1: now 138 MB worth of updates. .net 3.5sp1, silverlight, media player 11, ms security essentials selected this time. after the .net install it is going to be a lot more updates. 14 updates this time.
Reboot 2: several failed and having to pick them up this time around. 135 MB 35 updates mostly .net patches.
Reboot 3: that about gets everything except ms security essentials and silverlight. installing them now.
Reboot 4: not really required, installed security essentials and silverlight, no reboot, ran updates again for a silverlight update, ran again and nothing new listed. rebooting now just to see. I think this is it and i can finally get some sleep.
Yep, that's it. This is what it takes to update xp mce 2005 sp2 at this point. I would have tried slipstreaming sp3 into the mce disk, but i've lots of failures with install after doing it. sucks.
Qchain was the tool i used to string updates and hotfixs together for one install process.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/296861
Edit: forgot to add catalog site
http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Home.aspx