Why won't my computer update?

Question

I've been trying to update my PC, but it keeps saying "Windows can't check for updates." I went to the site, but I keep getting an error that says "Server reset." It only does that on that one site. Whenever I do run an update check, it always says "An error occurred while checking for new updates for your computer. Code 80072EFE Windows Update encountered an unknown error."

I've already ran virus scans, there are none. And the update notification thing keeps popping up telling me there is a new update and to update my computer, but it just won't update.

I have an HP laptop with Windows Vista. Any ideas on what I should do? I am thinking about upgrading to Windows 7, but I still have an iffy feeling that my games, Word, and other programs will not work with 7. Does anyone know if 7 is compatible with all vista programs?

Answer 1

Oh, it really does sound like you have some malware that wasn't detected by your scan. I suggest you try them again, this time in Safe Mode With Networking. That sometimes keeps malware from protecting itself.



You might want to also download, update and run some other anti-malware scanners, Ad-Aware and Spybot S&D in particular. Sometimes one scanner will catch things another won't.





To get into Safe Mode with Networking:



1. Log out and reboot your machine.

2. When the machine starts the reboot sequence, press the F8 key repeatedly.

3. Select Safe Mode with Networking from the resulting menu.

4. Login. If the malware has changed your password, try logging in as Administrator. By default, Administrator has no password.

5. The machine will continue booting, but the Windows desktop will look different.

6. When you're finished doing what you need to do, log out and reboot back into normal mode.



Good luck.



Note: There ARE free versions of these programs on the websites listed. They just may not be obvious.



Ad-Aware Free (free): http://www.lavasoftusa.com/

Spybot S & D (free): http://www.spybot.com/



MalwareBytes (free) http://www.malwarebytes.org/ (If the program doesn’t run, changing its filename from mbam.exe to something else ending in .exe has sometimes proven effective.)

AVG anti-virus (free): http://free.grisoft.com/doc/2/lng/us/tpl/v5/

Avast! (free): http://www.avast.com/

Kaspersky (free trial) (Seems to dislike installing on any machine with just about any other decent anti-malware, including some firewalls.): http://usa.kaspersky.com/downloads/

Answer 2

Most computer errors are born in a part of your system which hardly anyone knows or understands - the registry. Everything from your latest emails to your desktop wallpaper are kept in this database, making it one of the most used parts of the Windows system.Because it's used so much, the registry database is actually prone to becoming corrupt and damaged, which makes Windows struggle to read the files inside it. Unfortunately, 100's of registry files are corrupted every week and Windows has no way to protect against it - it's this problem which causes most of your computer's errors. The problem is that when these files are corrupted, your PC actually takes longer to read them and often can't read them at all.This causes errors on your PC which seem to appear randomly. You can use a Registry cleaner. http://cleanup-comuter-run-perfectly.com Registry cleaners are tools which have been created to scan through the registry. If they find that it is broken, the registry cleaner will replace or fix the file for you to make your computer speed up and become free of errors. You should have a try! Good Luck!

Answer 3

7 is just a much much better version of vista as long as you stay with the same bit 32 or 64 you should be find i have had no problems with any software

Answer 4

if your going to get windows 7 do a clean install otherwise theres not much point,its a lot better than vista i can recommend it

Answer 5

with the aid of default, in case you have computerized updates working and have it set to receive and installation the updates without prompting you, then if a restart is needed, it does arise and ask in case you elect for to restart now or later and in case you do no longer elect to restart later or now, then it is going to do an computerized restart after approximately 5 minutes. in case you alter the updates to tell you of updates, or receive yet do no longer installoption then you definately would be wanting a yellow shield icon on your device tray to tell you that updates are waiting to place in after which you get to choose for while they actually installation after which you apart from mght provide you the choice to restart now or later.