Killing a hung VM in LabManager (ESX)

First find the machine name which in LabManager is usually proceeded by a 6 digit number. Then from the console type
"ps -auxwww | grep -i (######-machine name).vmx"

This will give you the PID which you can kill using
"kill -9 (PID)"

Windows Update Issue

I just won against a Windows Update issue on XP that had me quite puzzled. The error that I was getting with both Microsoft and Windows Update was "Error Number: 0x8024402C The website has encountered a problem and cannot display the page you are trying to view." and "Error Number: 0x8024402C The website has encountered a problem and cannot display the page you are trying to view."

Looking at the WindowsUpdate.log file under "c:\Windows\" I found a line that says

"WARNING: SendRequest failed with hr = 80072ee7. Proxy List Used <proxy.company.com:1234> Bypass List Used : <null>"

The proxy however in IE has been removed so that there is no proxy under Tools > Internet Options > Connections > LAN Settings. Here is the catch, if you open a command prompt and type in "proxycfg" you will see that the proxy listed in the WindowsUpdate.log error is still in the registry. To clear this type in the following

proxycfg -d
net stop wuauserv
net start wuauserv

Once you have cleared that cached proxy MS update and Windows Update will work again. MS has a document on this proceedure on their website.