When trying to upgrade a VMware ESX host to 4.0u2 using the VMware vSphere Host Update Utility may fail with the following error message:
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To resolve this issue you need to change Regional Settings of the computer running the Host Update Utility to English (U.S) or similar:

Close the Host Update Utility and start it again. Should now work fine.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942460
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1004767