Vista - History page notes they "failed" to load

Several days ago there was a large number of updates available to download. I allowed the system to update all of them. Three, KB974234, KB972581 and KB973709 it was shown on the update history page as failing to download.
Reading as to a possible solution, I tried to load them manually, saving those files to my desktop, right clicking on each, to run as an administrator. After each loaded I got a message telling me they were already installed on my system.
My question is why does the "failure" notice remain on my history page and how can I delete those three file entries?
Thanks much,
Lee

Simplest way to reset WU history is stop for the moment Windows Update service and remove C:\Windows\SoftwareDistibution folder...

Thanks for the suggestion.
I tried to both remove the file as you suggested by deleting it and also tried to rename it.
In both cases the action was stopped, telling me I needed permission to continue, when I gave that permission, I was told access was denied because the file was in use by another program.
I accessed the file (C:\windows\softwaredistribution) from the "start search" line by opening the start icon.
Lee

Try reset WU components in aggressive mode How do I reset Windows Update components?
(apart many things which this tool do,it delete SoftwareDistribution as well)

If it also fail check permissions fort his folder Folder Permissions

You can also try delete this folder in safe mode

Flavius,
I thank you very much.
Ran your suggestion in the default mode, that failed to clear the history, but the aggressive mode did the trick.
Lee