Windows Vista Windows updates not allowed and error message

I just had my laptop added to our company domain and though they gave me administrator rights i have lost the ability to update windows.

When i go to update it says the administrator will manage it and when i click on update anyway it gives me an error message that resolves from microsoft help to be an issue with the microsoft website and firewall.

I have turned off the personal firewall and still no luck. Our IT department which does not support Vista said they do not put anything in the users profile to stop windows update.

Windows update did work before joining the domain.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

If your company uses SMS or WSUS, it is possible there is a group policy in place that restricts the use of Windows Update altogether. I know that my company has this policy in place, and all updates are provided by my companies IT department once they have been validated.
If your company doesn't support Windows Vista, then you probably won't get any updates until they do.

 

Same issue, figured out how to "fix" it!

I encountered the same exact problem, and figured out a way to "fix" it. I do not believe this is related to group policy, but rather is an issue with Vista itself. My laptop is running Vista Business but is NOT part of a domain. I posted the fix HERE, which also has screenshots from another user showing the issue.

Basically, what I did:

Under Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc), under COMPUTER CONFIGURATION - ADMINISTRATIVE TEMPLATES - WINDOWS COMPONENTS - WINDOWS UPDATE, I changed "Configure Automatic Updates" to 5 (Allow local admin to choose setting). Ran gpupdate, still had the same issue.

Then went to USER CONFIGURATION - ADMINISTRATIVE TEMPLATES - WINDOWS COMPONENTS - WINDOWS UPDATE, I changed "Remove access to use all Windows Update features" to DISABLED (was set to Not Configured, which should have been the same thing.) Ran gpupdate again, and while I still see the dialog that says "Some settings are managed by your system administrator ", I am now able to manually run Windows Update, and I can change all the settings (which previously were grayed out, as shown above.)

Now sure why this happened, nor why setting the last one to Disabled made it work again, but it's working and that's what matters. Try that and let us know if it works for you.

 

still no luck but it is a vista problem

sometime last week i searched the registry for update keys and played with many of them. i finally ended up getting it to say i control updates but i am not allowed to change the settings as these are administrator controlled (me.)

we do not run any group policies regarding updates.

I tried the group editor and some how everything got reset back to before i did my regedit hacks. i went back and tried to change things but to no avail.

what is grupdate?

Vista is not prime time.