Try following if you are getting error 0x8DDD0018 when trying to run automatic update on Windows XP.
- BITS service must be running.
- Also try:
regsvr32.exe wuaueng.dll
regsvr32.exe qmgr.dll
regsvr32.exe qmgrprxy.dll
Then locate the key in the registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMCurrentControlSetServiceswuauserv
And if you find a DeleteFlag value there, delete the DeleteFlag value.