How to fix Windows Update error 80070011

When updating my freshly installed Windows 7 on my Eee PC 901 I stumbled upon the 80070011 error when trying to install KB974431. I did manage to find a solution to the problem, and since it was a bit tricky to find, I figured I should post it here, hoping that anyone that has this problem in the future will have an easier time finding the solution than I did.

UPDATE: Some say this still works in Windows 8, some say it doesn’t.

The cause of the problem is that you might have junctioned your Program Files directory to another hard drive in order to save space (that’s what I did – if you haven’t done anything like this to your Program Files directory, this fix might not work for you), but this update still wants to install to the default path in C:.

Luckily, the fix is only a regedit away. Now, I guess I should mention that editing the registry might cause problems if you edit the wrong things, that you should only do it if you feel comfortable and that I don’t take any responsibility for any potential problems. I hope I got that right, I’m new at writing posts like this.

The solution:

  1. Open the registry editor by going to Run and typing in regedit
  2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
  3. Edit the ProgramFilesDir and CommonFilesDir entries so that they point to the actual location of your Program Files and Common Files folders (most likely just change the drive letter from C: to D:)
  4. Close the registry editor, KB974431 should now install without any problems

Thanks to LionelHutz at the EeeUser Forum for the solution!

Upside down

So, some might know they are renovating the building where I live. That includes no toilet/shower/running water in my apartment, and workers actually coming inside the apartment at around 07:00 every morning. This is a video of me going to the toilet – the only one functioning in the entire 11-story apartment block.

Cataclysm.

So Bibi was right – good job. It did however seem a lot better on screen than on paper, and thus, I’m really excited about this (as usual). For those who don’t know, it’s the new World of Warcraft expansion.

Also at BlizzCon was the new Diablo 3 class, the monk. Cool stuff, I’m very excited about D3 as well, but Cataclysm definitely took the prize this year. There was also some talk about their unannounced MMO in the works, will be interesting to see how that turns out. And some Starcraft 2 stuff as well, but not as much stuff about compared to the other games.

Finally, some site stuff. It’s been like half a year since I updated, and well, I won’t apologize or promise to post more, because that’s lame. I did change the content on the page a bit, I think it’s better now. Gone is the shoutbox – it was cool, but it didn’t really work as well as I wanted. My latest tweets are also gone, if you want to read them, follow me on Twitter.

Hellos!

I just realized it’s damn hard to come up with something to write. That’s why this will be a short first post =D Instead I’ll just show you something I did:
The dynamic forum signature!
Yeah, it’s an image (resized) that displays the latest post on this site, automatically gets updated whenever something is posted obviously. Perfect for forum signatures =P Might not be the hardest thing to create, but I’m happy that I managed to make it work properly (mostly) myself.

When it comes to the site itself, I haven’t yet decided on the layout. At the moment I use the Tarski theme, which I think it’s simple yet nice, but I’m still searching for alternatives and I might even create my own at some point. The shoutbox you see to the left is Wordspew, a WordPress plugin, which I’m also looking to improve or replace with something better – you’re welcome to write something. It’s actually fun to know that people actually visit your site.

By the way, Messenger Plus! Live 4.80 was released earlier today. If you use Windows Live Messenger, I encourage you to try it out. This version is fully compatible with WLM 2009.