For the technically minded what I did to fix the Firefox update problem was to remove the cookie named aus2.mozilla.org. (There are detailed instructions below about how to remove the aus2.mozilla.org cookie).

The error occurs after Mozilla Firefox attempts to perform an automatic update check, or when you select the menu option ‘Help’ -> ‘Check for Updates..’. The error is displayed below.

How to fix the error ‘AUS: Update XML File Malformed (200)’ and update Firefox

1. Open Firefox and choose the menu option ‘Tools’, and then select ‘Options…’

2. Click on the ‘Privacy’ tab, and then click on ‘Show Cookies’.

3. Scroll down the list of cookies until you find the ‘aus2.mozilla.org’ cookie (they are in alphabetical order). Click on ‘Remove Cookie’.

4. Check to see if the problem has been fixed by performing an update. Select the Firefox Help menu, then ‘Check for updates..’.

5. If the problem has not been resolved please visit the mozillaZine software update page , or the Firefox support website for more details about what may be causing the Firefox update problem on your computer.

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The impression I received from reading about the experiences of other people with this problem is that is related to certain firewall software products not allowing AdobeUpdater to connect to the internet. Updating my firewall settings to allow this process full access to the internet did not resolve the problem.
If you are suffering from the AdobeUpdater process as well I can suggest four possible solutions:

1. Review and update your firewall settings to allow the AdobeUpdater process to access the internet.
2. Install an earlier version of Adobe Reader.
3. Try installing alternative PDF viewer software such as FoxIt Reader.
4. Prevent the AdobeUpdater process from running, detailed below.

Fix the AdobeUpdater problem – when you have Adobe Acrobat 8.1 (not the free version)

If you want to continue using Adobe Acrobat but have a problem with AdobeUpdater causing your computer to run slowly there is a work-around described here, as excerpted from the discussion on the Adobe forum here – AdobeUpdater.exe hogging all the CPU runtime (the solution is highlighted in bold text).

Hi Pam,

Sorry my message wasn’t clear, I copied it from another post.

What I did was to rename ‘Updater.api’ in C:\Program Files\Adobe\Acrobat 8.0\Acrobat\plug_ins to ‘Updater.api.PROBLEM‘ (subtle, eh?)

That way, Adobe can’t find the updater program to run it. I’ve had this fix in place since the 26th Feb and I’ve had no recurrence of the CPU problem and apparently no problems caused by my fix either.

Hope that helps.

Best regards,

Neil

Fix the AdobeUpdater problem – when you have Adobe Reader 8.1 (the free PDF reader)

If you are using Adobe Reader 8.1 (the free PDF reader) and you want to stop the AbobeUpdater process from running then the instructions are slightly different to if you are using Adobe Acrobat.

The following screenshots will show you how to rename the Updater.api file. These are taken from a computer running Windows XP.

Step 1 – Open the ‘Run…’ command.

Step 2 – Enter the following in the ‘Open:’ field :
C:\Program Files\Adobe\Reader 8.0\Reader\plug_ins

Step 3 – Right click on the Updater.api file, and select the Rename option.

Step 4 – Rename the file to Updater.api.PROBLEM and press the Enter key.

This big downside to this workaround is that you will miss out on notification of new releases and updates. It’s not a perfect solution but it’s the only I found that let me continue to use Adobe Acrobat 8.1.