Failed to install "Security Update for .NET Framework 2.0 SP2 and 3.5 SP1 on Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP x86 (KB983583)"

Windows Update kept failing indicating it Failed to install "Security Update for .NET Framework 2.0 SP2 and 3.5 SP1 on Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP x86 (KB983583)"

After some Googling, and manually downloading and running the update, I managed to get the actual error message 1603 from the manual installer. Later I discovered that the generic error "1603" implies a "Fatal error during installation.".

The Microsoft KB seems to indicate that "These errors codes are usually caused by a corruption in the .NET Framework installation or by an inconsistency on the MSI database state.". In an attempt to resolve the issue as per the KB, I attempted to manually uninstall the .net framework, but this too failed.

I then downloaded the un-installer (Refer 3 below) and forced the uninstall. Installed the latest .net framework and updated. I had to reboot the machine after the first lot of updates, and attempted Windows Update again after the reboot. Uninstalling and re-installing the .net framework appears to have resolved the issue.

References:

1. http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1e53f250-2d4b-4f61-86ee-9f9f3a9c0b48&displaylang=en
2. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/923100/
3. http://cid-27e6a35d1a492af7.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Blog_Tools/dotnetfx_cleanup_tool.zip