I'm trying to upgrade windows xp sp1 to sp2. During the install process (30 min) it stops, access denied comes up, then upgrade failed and goes through revert.

Anyone hear of this and how to get sp2 installed?

Windows XP pro / pentium 4 / 512mb / 60gb hd

try shutting down and hitting f8 to get to safe mode. then try to install the upgrade. and see if you get the same problem. it sounds like a file is in use that it is trying to change, or you dont have security permissions for the file it is trying to change.

are you the Administrator on the PC.....do you have any virus protection running ( not suppose to stop it but it can happen)

Hi yes personal PC with admin rights and yes antivirus is running... I was wondering if I should stop but do not think I did when I upgraded laptop...

I have downloaded from automatic updates and received the CD from microsoft. I also downloaded the IT version as someone suggested since it was an older version (from 2004) it would skip a certain validation process... but same thing happens at same point of install.

Seached google seems there are similar threads on other forums thats where I saw the suggestion for IT version...

Anyone anything???

what antivirus you have running.. i would disable for a bit and try to install... here is a link you can try these steps, not sure if this is identical to your issue.http://support.microsoft.com/kb/873148

Thanks I'm going to try the safe mode and if that doesn't work I have gone to the link and got some suggestions for the registry security...

I really appreciate the input and will reply with the progress... thanks again

well the safe mode route did not work even logged in as administrator. I am now gonna try to enable verbose to get a log to see where exactly this is getting hung. Then will modify the registry...

ok I have got the sp2 upgrade complete, I believe my registry permission for HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT was not as it needed to be.

I corrected it by clicking start, click run, type regedit to start Registry Editor. Right clicked on hkey_classes_root then picked permissions and the checked full control and read, which were not checked.

I found this through the link in a response above...

Thanks for the help