Fix for "Could not start the Automatic Updates service on local computer"

You may find that the Automatic Updates service on Windows XP is stopped with the following error:

Could not start the Automatic Updates service on local computer. Error 0×80004015: The class is configured to run as a security ID different from the caller.

This can happen when Windows XP clients attempt to start the Automatic Updates service and is due to a permissions issue. The quickest and the easiest solution would be to reset the permissions for the Automatic Updates service on the client and then start the service.

To display the current permissions of the Automatic Updates service and fix them:

1. Click Start, Run and type “cmd” to launch the Command prompt
2. From the command prompt, type: SC sdshow wuauserv
   The output will look like: D:(A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;BA)(A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;SY)(A;;CCLCSWLOCRRC;;;IU)
3. Now, reset the permissions as follows from the command prompt (single line, wrapped for clarity):
   SC sdset wuauserv D:(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;SY)(A;;CCDCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRSDRCWDWO;;;BA)(A;;CCLCSWLOCRRC;;;AU)(A;;CCLCSWRPWPDTLOCRRC;;;PU)

We can now start the service and try to detect the Automatic Updates from the command prompt:

C:\>wuauclt.exe /detectnow

This should fix the problem.