I'm trying to install updates from WindowsUpdate on my Windows XP computer, but I keep encountering a winlogon.exe error. What's going on?

A. The full text of the error you're referring to is "Winlogon.exe. Entry Point Not Found. The procedure entry point AssocIsDangerous could not be found in the dynamic link library SHLWAPI.DLL." This problem is typically the result of installing XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) without restarting the computer when prompted, then attempting to access other updates from the WindowsUpdate site. Performing these actions corrupts certain DLLs. Because the corrupted DLLs are core files, you can't repair them while Windows is running. To repair the damaged files, you need to boot into the Recovery Console (RC), which you might have installed locally or which you can access from the XP installation CD-ROM, by performing the following steps:

1. Reboot your computer.
2. If you've installed the RC locally on your computer, select "Recovery Console" from the boot menu; otherwise, access the RC from the XP installation CD-ROM.
3. Select R to repair your installation, then select C to start the RC.
4. When prompted, review the available XP installations and enter the number that appears next to the XP installation that you want to repair.
5. Enter the Administrator account password.
6. Navigate to the System32 folder. For example, type

   cd \windows\system32 

7. Rename the winlogon.exe, msgina.dll, shell32.dll, and shlwapi.dll files with the .old file extension by typing

   ren winlogon.exe winlogon.old 
   ren msgina.dll msgina.old
   ren shell32.dll shell32.old
   ren shlwapi.dll shlwapi.old 

8. Copy the service pack version of these files to the System32 folder by typing

   cd ..\servicepackfiles\i386
   copy msgina.dll c:\windows\system32 
   copy shell32.dll c:\windows\system32
   copy winlogon.exe c:\windows\system32 
   copy shlwapi.dll c:\windows\system32 

9. Reboot the computer.

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