Upgrading a Windows XP machine with Visual Studio 2005: KB2251481 Security Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Service – Microsoft Answers
Posted by jpluimers on 2012/01/24
Every once in a while you need to maintain really old stuff, and start update an old VM.
In case of Visual Studio 2005, the Windows Update and Microsoft Update will get you into a condition where it cannot install “Security Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 XML Editor (KB2251481)“. Not even the direct download will install.
The search for “some updates were not installed” “Security Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 XML Editor (KB2251481)” pointed me to the solution:
There are two versions of KB2251481 June and August. When the June version is installed, the August version refuses to install.
Uninstall the original KB2251481 from the Control Panel. Then reinstall the August version.
The KB2251481 article mentions this only for the “Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Premier Partner Edition SP1”, but it happens with other Visual Studio 2005 editions as well.
–jeroen
via: KB2251481 Security Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Service – Microsoft Answers.
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
KB2251481 update issues (via: MS11-049: Description of the security update for Visual Studio 2005 SP1: June 14, 2011) « The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of Wiert stuff said
[…] I bumped into the issue before, and wanted a shorter/easier form of hoopla. And there is: The easy way of doing the hoopla is through an msiexec command-line: C:WINDOWSsystem32msiexec.exe /promptrestart /uninstall {23036C23-ECDE-47F5-A908-BEC94EE0456F} /package {1B041548-33BC-4174-8B97-ADC9B7948488} […]