Fix for installing KB842773 Update for Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) 2.0
This weekend, I’ve been doing a clean install of Windows 2000 on an old computer, starting with original Windows 2000, then the SP4 rollup, then running Windows Update to load all the miscellaneous patches.
Unfortunately, on a clean install of Win2K followed by SP4 (which tightened the security model), Windows Update won’t work, as it want to install and use the updated BITS service. The symptoms are that it will try to install, then report that the installation failed.
After a lengthy search online, here are the two steps that appear to fix it (worked for me):
1. Make sure that “Microsoft Client for Networks” is one of the installed services for the network adapter. I started out with just TCP/IP. I’m not completely convinced that this is needed, but it was mentioned in a few places.
2. In the User Administration control panel, add Administrator (or the account you’re using to update from) to the Backup Operators group.
After making these two changes, Windows Update will begin to work as expected, instead of failing every time.