Urgent help needed! Microsoft update caused a mess

Hello!

I'm actually posting this for a friend.. so the details may be undetailed a bit, but I have her on standby if anything else is required.

Ok, here's what happened:

She downloaded some microsoft updates overnight, then when she woke up in the morning Zone alarm came up "asking for microsoft security shield access to the internet or something" She says she accidently click "Deny".

After that she got a "NDA failure Notification" box.

Now, she can't access the internet, and the system recovery option isn't working apparently. Same with most of her programs. She has tried safe mode, which has provided access to a couple of programs.. but the internet and system recovery still do not work.

The strange thing is.. she's talking to me through World of Warcraft on this computer.. which requires the internet and seems to be working.. and she's really stressed right now.

Operating system is Windows XP.

Any help would be MUCH appreciated!

Thanks!

This may sound silly, but try it.

As suggested before, go to the program control part of zonalarm and delete "all" the programs. Then try to go to the internet-you will be hit with zonealarm asking for permission for IE and others, keep saying yes till you get internet access. Once you are there, you can work your way down on restricting access, If that does not work I have another idea.

I am thinking this might be the built-in firewall for xp.
Try turning it off-control panel-security center (double click) and click on windows firewall and click on off (not recommmended).

Hoped one of theese solves your issue-please let us know one way or the other.

Man what a dilemma, especially with Zone Alarm, her machine should have never been left unattended with Windows Updates active and downloading, because some of the service pack installs communicate back to the server.

If she was able to talk to you through an online game she probably just needed to temporarily shutdown Zone Alarm period, for the thing to be able to complete, however if she's restarted the computer, she definitely now has a problem.

If the update she was getting was service pack 2, she could simply uninstall SP2 in the Add Remove programs.

Sounds like problem with Zone software... it's their problem, have their tech support deal with it. Personally, I hate third party firewall software especially since MS firewall now integrated and updated frequently.