Hi. It seems that most of us at one time or another are getting the same
messages that you  have been. I'm not a tech but have had my own difficulty
with accessing the site. However I am now accessing with no problems so I'm
going to offer a few suggestions to you. The order doesn't really matter I
just did that to separate different trouble shooting suggestions. 8^)

Shutdown any virus scanner you may have running.

1) Go to this site and download the Virtual Machine. This was updated
and some folks have been finding that they need this updated
version to gain access.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/corporate.asp

2) Try a clean up of your Downloaded Programs File folder. You can find it
in C:\Windows. This is an ActiveX folder. If you have "Damaged" items there
you will need to remove them, you can't delete them they need to be removed
with a right click. They will be rebuilt the next time you log onto a site
that requires that ActiveX component. The component called
"InstallEngineCtrl Object" can be a real pain and you might just want to
remove it. Also check to see if the Windows Update component WURedirInfoB
Class or WURedirInfo Class is Damaged. If so get rid of it. These are a
couple of  the Critical Components Windows Update site is referring to. I
found that the site saw them as installed but did not seem to over write
them so I needed to get rid of them manually when they were Damaged.

In both of these situations you will need to go back to the WinUpdate Site
and you will likely encounter the "Access Denied" page again. First hit the
"Try Again" button. If this works you are in. If it doesn't then try the
"Download Critical Components" once more and then try to gain access.

3) If you have any Third Party programs like Cookie Pal that stops you from
receiving cookies you will need to shut that off, or if you have a program
that stops pop up ads from showing you should turn that off as well.
WinUpdate relies heavily on JAVA and stopping the flow will cause you
problems.

4) You may need to go to View|Internet Options|Security Tab and select
"Custom Settings" and go in and enable all of your ActiveX controls and set
your JAVA Permissions to "Low Safety". Then try the site again. You can
change the settings back to their defaults for Medium again later for
surfing other sites but some folks have found that this has worked for them.
I didn't need to go that far.

5) Go to the Windows Update Page at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/
Click on "Support" (next to Write Us) on the toolbar at the top of the page
and select "Windows Update Support" from the menu that appears. It gives you
a list of FAQs  that are helpful (another one of MS *hidden gems*) Scroll
down to "Why do I get a Control Required error message........" and check
out all of the options there

6) download from this site
http://www.microsoft.com/windows98/downloads/corporate.asp

Good luck

Harry Ohrn