Your settings are not saved when you try to personalize the Windows Update Web site or the Microsoft Update Web site

Symptoms

When you try to personalize the Windows Update Web site or the Microsoft Update Web site, your settings are not saved.

To resolve this problem, enable the Userdata persistence security setting. To do this, follow these steps:

Start Microsoft Internet Explorer.
In the Tools menu, click Internet Options, and then click the Security tab.
Under Select a Web content zone, click Internet, and then click Custom Level.
In Settings, click Enable in the Miscellaneous section under Userdata persistence, and then click OK.
When you are prompted to confirm that you want to change the security settings for this zone, click Yes.
Click OK to close the Internet Options dialog box, and then close all Internet Explorer windows.

If the problem persists, delete the WindowsUpdate[x].xml files in your UserData folder. To do this, follow these steps:

Close all Internet Explorer windows.
Click Start, click Run type explorer in the Open box, and then click OK.
Locate the UserData folder. This folder is in one of the following locations:
- Microsoft Windows 98 and Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
  
  C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\UserData
- Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows XP, or Microsoft Windows Server 2003
  
  C:\Documents and Settings\Username\UserData
Typically, the UserData folder contains four subfolders. Open each folder, and then delete any files that take the following form:

WindowsUpdate[n].xmlTo delete a file, right-click the file, and then click Delete.

Note You may see multiple versions of these files in the folders. Some of the folders may be empty. Delete all these files that you find.

For more information about how to use Windows Update, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

323166 How to download updates that include drivers and hotfixes from the Windows Update Catalog