Hi ducttape45,
A few days ago we were discussing something similar (except on Win-7). It seems that when a machine gets too far behind in patching and with so many patching wanting to install in a specific order Windows Update can get confused and not respnd properly.
You may want to try what fellow FReeper gattaca wrote here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3455677/posts?page=64#64
I can’t say for sure if it will work on Vista like it works on 7 but it’s worth a try.
Good luck!
~rockrr~
Thanks for the head's up on that. I'll check it out next time I install Windows 7.