Windows Update stops working – Error Code 80071A30 – Resolution

I recently got this error on my Laptop, running Windows 7 (Enterprise SP1), when I tried to apply new Windows Updates.

I took the following steps to resolve the issue.

1:  Turn off / Disable any Anti-Virus and Firewall software. I had “Symantec EndPoint Protection”.

2:  Reboot machine into Safe Mode using F8 on restart.

3:  Select “Run” from the Start menu and type %windir%

(Tip: You can also access the Run command by pressing the Windows logo key +R)

4:  Find and Rename Folder SoftwareDistribution to say, SoftwareDistribution_old

5:  Reboot machine into normal windows mode

6:  Run Windows update.

7:  Re-enable Anti-virus and Firewall software.

This seemed to fix the problem for me. Hope it helps

Top 10 Best Practices for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services

I was fortunate enough to attend Microsoft’s Tech-Ed event in Berlin in Nov 2009 and attended a session given by Markus Raatz, which was very informative.

Some interesting topic areas covered included:

• Attribute Relationships
• Dimensions
• Measure Groups
• ROLAP and MOLAP storage
• Aggregations
• User defined Hierachies
• Partitions
• Data Providers and
• Error Handling

He also mentioned visiting the Project REAL site for more information:

Project REAL is a cooperative effort between Microsoft and a number of technology partners in the business intelligence (BI) industry to build on actual customer scenarios to discover best practices for creating BI applications based on SQL Server 2005. Project REAL uses authentic customer data to work through customer deployment issues and to address the full range of real-world challenges that companies face when analyzing large data sets.

His PowerPoint 2007 presentation deck can be found here.