Windows update problem

I returned from holiday on the 14th of this month and found that I had 2 problems with my laptop,Windows Vista Home Premium 32bit.

1) I was unable to start Windows Firewall, no matter what I tried after doing numerous searches on the Internet. I have now solved that by downloading Comodo Firewall.

2) I am also unable to check for, or download Windows Updates. When I click on "Automatic Updates", it tells me the option isn't available and neither can I download them manually.

Can anyone please offer a suggestion how to resolve this problem?

PS: I am also getting "Internet Explorer Has Stopped Working" every 15 minutes or so.

My wife's desktop has a similar problem, I plan to solve it by giving her Windows 7.

Vista is a bit like Windows ME, best forgotten.

Have you recently installed any other programs or hardware. If so I'd back that out and see if that resolved your issue. If not, maybe do a system restore to a point in time when everything was still working. For IE, I'd simply uninstall and reinstall it and see if that helps.

Mike

Check the Window updates you have installed and see if any failed to install. If so, you can delete or uninstall it (I can't remember which option it gives) and reboot. You can also, try to boot into safe mode and see if you you can get Windows Update to work.

I would also run a scan of your anti virus and make sure it isn't a virus.

Many thanks everyone for your replies. I have now managed to activate all of the boxes in the Windows Security Center and have set my updates to automatic. However, I am still unable to install any updates, I keep getting the red shield with a cross through the middle and the message "Updates Not Installed". I have repeated this dozens of times without success.

Over the past few days I have researched this problem on the Internet and one thing that does crop-up regularly is, "Background Intelligence Transfer Service" (BITS), which is located in Services and should be activated, unfortunately this is missing on my computer. Does anyone know where, or how I can download/enable BITS?

I did a System Restore, but was unable to go back far enough to a point where my computer was working properly IE: 6th September.

I didn't want to go back to factory setting unless it is absolutely necessary.

I should also add that I have done a scan and no problems found with Microsoft Security Essentials.

I had an issue with this a few weeks ago, and it might be similar.
I had an issue with one of the updates.
If that one didn't download correctly and install, it caused an issue with the 3 others associated with it.
I would try to download the specific updates one at a time from microsoft.com and try to install them separately.
The kb (knowledgebase) numbers should be listed next to the updates.

killwilly wrote in post #15053172
Over the past few days I have researched this problem on the Internet and one thing that does crop-up regularly is, "Background Intelligence Transfer Service" (BITS), which is located in Services and should be activated, unfortunately this is missing on my computer. Does anyone know where, or how I can download/enable BITS?

The following link may help you:
http://answers.microso​ft.com …60-4e53-9b7b-f97e9436e529

Many thanks everyone for your replies. I have now managed to get my computer working properly by following the instructions in the last post on the link below.

The updates are working and I'm not getting "Internet Explorer Stopped Working". The computer also seems quicker.

http://forums.techguy.​org …t-update-failed-bits.html