Trouble with Windows Update/Group Policy

[Enigma]

Hello, this is my first post on these forums. Whenever I check Windows Update, I get a message that says "Windows Update cannot currently check for updates, because updates on this computer are controlled by your system administrator". However, i'm not on a network. This is my personal laptop, and I'm the only one who has an account on it, other than the Guest account. I have also activated the "real" administrator account that Microsoft has hidden, via the command prompt with the "net user administrator /active:yes" command. So basically, I'm the administrator. Under Windows Update it also says "Some settings are managed by your system administrator. More information". When i click on it it says that the cause may be due to changes to Group Policy. I do remember fooling around with Group Policy awhile back changing settings and such, but this was long ago and it never gave me any problems. This problem first occurred 2 days ago, whereas before that it updated just fine. So i went back into GP and changed any settings that appeared to be related to updating, but to no avail. In the past 2 days the Run command suddenly disapeared from my Start menu, the Task Manager option was no longer available when pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del, and I received a permissions error when attempting to type c:/ or any other drive letter in a Windows Explorer window. But by editing GP once again these other problems have been resolved, with the exception of Windows Update. So I'm wondering, what exactly do i need to change in GP to get rid of this error? Or, how i can i reset all the GP options back to the defaults set by Microsoft? I appreciate any help provided. Reply soon.

 

[richc46]

Hello, this is my first post on these forums. Whenever I check Windows Update, I get a message that says "Windows Update cannot currently check for updates, because updates on this computer are controlled by your system administrator". However, i'm not on a network. This is my personal laptop, and I'm the only one who has an account on it, other than the Guest account. I have also activated the "real" administrator account that Microsoft has hidden, via the command prompt with the "net user administrator /active:yes" command. So basically, I'm the administrator. Under Windows Update it also says "Some settings are managed by your system administrator. More information". When i click on it it says that the cause may be due to changes to Group Policy. I do remember fooling around with Group Policy awhile back changing settings and such, but this was long ago and it never gave me any problems. This problem first occurred 2 days ago, whereas before that it updated just fine. So i went back into GP and changed any settings that appeared to be related to updating, but to no avail. In the past 2 days the Run command suddenly disapeared from my Start menu, the Task Manager option was no longer available when pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del, and I received a permissions error when attempting to type c:/ or any other drive letter in a Windows Explorer window. But by editing GP once again these other problems have been resolved, with the exception of Windows Update. So I'm wondering, what exactly do i need to change in GP to get rid of this error? Or, how i can i reset all the GP options back to the defaults set by Microsoft? I appreciate any help provided. Reply soon.

Wow, a lot has happened. The only thing that I can tell you is what I would do with my computer. The first thing I would do is check very throughly, that there are no virus, run a virus check. Things like this don't just happen. Either you did something or someone else is trying to do somethin.

I would then take the easy way out. I would use a SystemRestore from an earlier time.
I would then, make a system image and put it in a safe place, for possible future problems.

Some will come here and give correct information about repair install, SFC, or maybe even a reinstall. I really do not know what others will say, but all those things are correct. But for my home computer, I would want to be sure that there are no virus and then just use systemimage and enjoy the holiday. Its your computer and your choice. Whatever you decide I do wish you a Happy Holiday.

 

[Uber Philf]

Hello, this is my first post on these forums. Whenever I check Windows Update, I get a message that says "Windows Update cannot currently check for updates, because updates on this computer are controlled by your system administrator". However, i'm not on a network. This is my personal laptop, and I'm the only one who has an account on it, other than the Guest account. I have also activated the "real" administrator account that Microsoft has hidden, via the command prompt with the "net user administrator /active:yes" command. So basically, I'm the administrator. Under Windows Update it also says "Some settings are managed by your system administrator. More information". When i click on it it says that the cause may be due to changes to Group Policy. I do remember fooling around with Group Policy awhile back changing settings and such, but this was long ago and it never gave me any problems. This problem first occurred 2 days ago, whereas before that it updated just fine. So i went back into GP and changed any settings that appeared to be related to updating, but to no avail. In the past 2 days the Run command suddenly disapeared from my Start menu, the Task Manager option was no longer available when pressing Ctrl-Alt-Del, and I received a permissions error when attempting to type c:/ or any other drive letter in a Windows Explorer window. But by editing GP once again these other problems have been resolved, with the exception of Windows Update. So I'm wondering, what exactly do i need to change in GP to get rid of this error? Or, how i can i reset all the GP options back to the defaults set by Microsoft? I appreciate any help provided. Reply soon.

Wow, a lot has happened. The only thing that I can tell you is what I would do with my computer. The first thing I would do is check very throughly, that there are no virus, run a virus check. Things like this don't just happen. Either you did something or someone else is trying to do somethin.

I would then take the easy way out. I would use a System Image from an earlier time. If not availale, use system image.

I would then, make a system image and put it in a safe place, for possible future problems.

Some will come here and give correct information about repair install, SFC, or maybe even a reinstall. I really do not know what others will say, but all those things are correct. But for my home computer, I would want to be sure that there are no virus and then just use system image and enjoy the holiday. Its your computer and your choice. Whatever you decide I do wish you a Happy Holiday.

As stated above, id say try SFC /scannow, possibly corrupt system files somewhere along the line.

Or possibly doing a system restore to a state before the problems began to occur.

 

[Enigma]

OK, but i'm still thinking that it has something to do with Group Policy, and if thats the case, then finding whatever option i changed and setting it back to what it used to be would seem like the solution. it just happened suddenly. As for an antivirus scanner, i would prefer to NOT have one installed. When i first bought this ASUS laptop back in january it had norton AV built in. i bogged me down and i didnt like it, plus i'm prejudiced against norton anyway. so i promptly purged every trace of it from the computer including every registry entry until i was sure it was gone. after that i tried avg and avast as well, and they were a little more performance friendly, but still slowed things down. so i removed them too. i just dont like the performance hit, among other problems that i've had with AVs in the past. I also dont have a firewall, even Windows Firewall is turned off. in my experience AVs and firewall have only hindered more than helped me, despite their benefits. and i do download lots of warez, ocassionally porn, etc. never really had alot of problems even despite that and lack of of what i will term "security software". As for system restore, its turned off because it takes disk space to store those images. to me disk space is precious. i do, however, perform a backup to an external HD once or twice a week. but i dont want to resort to that unless i have to because i dont feel like going thru the hassle of reinstalling programs that i had already installed post-backup/between backups, manually restoring settings, and having to recover various docs, etc. my laptop has 4 gigs of ram and a 230 gig hd and i've had it for only a yr now. its banged up and has lots of scratches, but those are only visual defects. plus the first ever keyboard button popped off last week but the button sensor still works. functionally, everything seems to be fine. i upgraded from vista to a student licensed version of win7 ultimate 64 bit in october and even though performance has increased slightly (compared to vista, at least), i can say that its decent but not all that great. still have had numerous BSODs and other mishaps since then, among other problems, but overall i'm happy with performance. i would like to squeeze all the life i can out of it before getting the next latest and greatest powerhouse laptop.

but i've gotten off track,and i'm still wondering if theres some other way to reset the GP configs back to their default settings. turning on system restore and making an image does no good at this point since the problem already exists.i have , however, noticed a LOT of processes running in task manager with names like 666.exe, 1.exe, 2.exe, etc., with no descriptions, so i killed off those processes, hunted down the files and deleted them, and did numerous restarts to ensure that they havent magically respawned. in any case, i dont see what that would have to do with Windows Update. WU clearly states that the problem lies with changes to the GP made by the admin. the only other thing i can think of is my friend charles screwing around with settings, since i let him borrow my laptop all the time. but he's not malicious and wouldnt do this kind of thing on purpose.

and i was able to resolve the other probs by editing GP again so i figure i can do this as well.

i just performed a SFC /scannow in command prompt, but that didnt solve the problem. it did, however, say that "Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them". this is no coincidence to me because i had just recently been screwing around with turning off Windows File Protection.

i also performed a chkdsk at boot-time, that found some problems and said they were repaired. and i even did a defrag. but the prob is still there.

whether i get this resolved or not, i'm thinking about backing up all my important files and program installers, and then reinstalling vista from the original factory disc,then doing a clean install of 7 from there, and then put all my progs/files back in after thats done. maybe it would help my general performance. i cant do a straight reinstall because the copy of 7 i bought is an upgrade only copy, which means that vista has to be preexistent on the HDD.

Well i appreciate any other help that can be provided. reply soon.

 

[Capt.Jack Sparrow]

Hi Enigma,
Maybe you can go to gpedit.msc

Navigate to Computer Configuration-> Administrative Templates-> System-> Internet Communication Management-> Internet Communication settings Turn off Windows Online

Specifies whether users can search and view content from Windows Online in Help and Support. Windows Online provides the most up-to-date Help content for Windows.

If this settings is enabled, users will be prevented from accessing online assistance content from Windows Online.

If this setting is disabled or not configured, users will be able to access online assistance if they have a connection to the Internet and have not disabled Windows Online from the Help and Support Options page.

Try to change those settings see what it does

Edit: I forgot to mention you could also try Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Troubleshooting there Fix problems with Windows Update

 

[Enigma]

Capt. Jack Sparrow:
Thanks for your quick reply. I went to Computer Configuration-> Administrative Templates-> System-> Internet Communication Management-> Internet Communication settings just like you said but there is nothing under Internet Communication labelled "turn off windows online". the closest options i found were "turn off windows update device driver searching", "turn off help and support center microsoft knowledge base search"and "turn off access to all windows update features". i carefully read the descriptions for each of these and configured them so that they hopefully would allow me to update. i also did the troubleshooting thing under control panel but it searched for problems, then displayed a list of items and stated "no issues found" for each of the categories. so i'm totally stumped. never in the history of me using windows have i ever had this sort of problem with updating. i've gotten error codes and things like that, but nothing like this. hope someone can help.........................

 

[richc46]

OK, but i'm still thinking that it has something to do with Group Policy, and if thats the case, then finding whatever option i changed and setting it back to what it used to be would seem like the solution. it just happened suddenly. As for an antivirus scanner, i would prefer to NOT have one installed. When i first bought this ASUS laptop back in january it had norton AV built in. i bogged me down and i didnt like it, plus i'm prejudiced against norton anyway. so i promptly purged every trace of it from the computer including every registry entry until i was sure it was gone. after that i tried avg and avast as well, and they were a little more performance friendly, but still slowed things down. so i removed them too. i just dont like the performance hit, among other problems that i've had with AVs in the past. I also dont have a firewall, even Windows Firewall is turned off. in my experience AVs and firewall have only hindered more than helped me, despite their benefits. and i do download lots of warez, ocassionally porn, etc. never really had alot of problems even despite that and lack of of what i will term "security software". As for system restore, its turned off because it takes disk space to store those images. to me disk space is precious. i do, however, perform a backup to an external HD once or twice a week. but i dont want to resort to that unless i have to because i dont feel like going thru the hassle of reinstalling programs that i had already installed post-backup/between backups, manually restoring settings, and having to recover various docs, etc. my laptop has 4 gigs of ram and a 230 gig hd and i've had it for only a yr now. its banged up and has lots of scratches, but those are only visual defects. plus the first ever keyboard button popped off last week but the button sensor still works. functionally, everything seems to be fine. i upgraded from vista to a student licensed version of win7 ultimate 64 bit in october and even though performance has increased slightly (compared to vista, at least), i can say that its decent but not all that great. still have had numerous BSODs and other mishaps since then, among other problems, but overall i'm happy with performance. i would like to squeeze all the life i can out of it before getting the next latest and greatest powerhouse laptop.

but i've gotten off track,and i'm still wondering if theres some other way to reset the GP configs back to their default settings. turning on system restore and making an image does no good at this point since the problem already exists.i have , however, noticed a LOT of processes running in task manager with names like 666.exe, 1.exe, 2.exe, etc., with no descriptions, so i killed off those processes, hunted down the files and deleted them, and did numerous restarts to ensure that they havent magically respawned. in any case, i dont see what that would have to do with Windows Update. WU clearly states that the problem lies with changes to the GP made by the admin. the only other thing i can think of is my friend charles screwing around with settings, since i let him borrow my laptop all the time. but he's not malicious and wouldnt do this kind of thing on purpose.

and i was able to resolve the other probs by editing GP again so i figure i can do this as well.

i just performed a SFC /scannow in command prompt, but that didnt solve the problem. it did, however, say that "Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired them". this is no coincidence to me because i had just recently been screwing around with turning off Windows File Protection.

i also performed a chkdsk at boot-time, that found some problems and said they were repaired. and i even did a defrag. but the prob is still there.

whether i get this resolved or not, i'm thinking about backing up all my important files and program installers, and then reinstalling vista from the original factory disc,then doing a clean install of 7 from there, and then put all my progs/files back in after thats done. maybe it would help my general performance. i cant do a straight reinstall because the copy of 7 i bought is an upgrade only copy, which means that vista has to be preexistent on the HDD.

Well i appreciate any other help that can be provided. reply soon.

Good news, fortunately you do not need Vista to upgrade. Read our tutorials. Basically, the way the DVD works,is that they put you on the honor system. In a nutshell, put the DVD in and boot from the DVD, when given the choice say custom/clean install. Hit the advanced options, select format. Then just continue. When asked for your key, do not give it. When done, put in your programs, etc. Then use is up to 30 days. Happy?, then give your number. If there is a problem, you will be given a number. Call, with a touch phone, and put in the number. If it does not work a person will come on, explain and, you are activated.

There are tutorials on this site to explain exactly how to do the install, but it just reitierates what I said. If you can make a system image of your HD, first, put it in a safe place in the event of problems.

You can turn off IE. Go to search type in turn off, then click turn off windows features. Thats as g

 

[TimStitt]

Hi Enigma,

I would be very virus-concerned too and would follow richc46's advice.

I also recommend downloading UnHackMe. If it is virus, I don't doubt that this will find it, the trial is full use for a small time period.

All I can tell you about the update/group policy message is that it resides in the wucltux.dll. This could just mean that you don't have access complete access to the registry, dll's or scripting and may not be group policy update related per se, i.e. it may be policy that affects one of the others I mentioned.

Lastly, you can have a look in secpol.msc (not just gpedit.msc) to ensure that there are no security policy restrictions in place, don't forget to check Applocker in the application control policies.

That's all I have mate, good luck.

 

[Flavius]

Try reset security settings to default settings How do I restore security settings to the default settings?

If it indeed is any virus the best way to detect & remove it use any livecd with antivir for example DrWEB livecd FREE Dr.Web LiveCD To Scan and Remove Virus Without Starting Windows Raymond.CC Blog

 

[TimStitt]

Try reset security settings to default settings How do I restore security settings to the default settings?

If it indeed is any virus the best way to detect & remove it use any livecd with antivir for example DrWEB livecd FREE Dr.Web LiveCD To Scan and Remove Virus Without Starting Windows Raymond.CC Blog

Nice one!

 

[Enigma]

I have reviewed everyone's posts and at this point i will say that i'm getting fed up with 7. so i'm scrapping it in favor of a custom/clean install. i think the prob was that i drug all of vista's baggage into 7 by upgrading. so right now i'm posting this message from a hewlett packard, and on my asus laptop i'm booted into a ubuntu live cd, busy copying all the files i need from the c drive onto an external terabyte drive. then i'm going to put in the 7 install cd and do a fresh install, free of vista's junk and my progs. i am wondering if that will solve my probs. its not just the fact that i'm unable to update thats bothering me, i've also experienced alot of slowdown ever since upgrading from vista to 7. i'm thinking that the issue could be that vista brought its baggage along with it. also, whenever i get to the ubuntu desktop, it tells me that there are probs with one of the harddrives and that one or both might be failing, although it still lets me access both of them. so i'm thinking that my laptop's internal hd is failing, slowly but surely. in any case, i guess i'll be spending at least part of my christmas repairing this piece of **** instead of relaxing. i should be done with all the major stuff by 6 am, then i'll take a break and put off the rest for a day or 2. i do have one more question though, i cant format the c drive while booted into windows, does anyone know the exact linux commands use to format c drive from within ubuntu? i ask this because i want to blast away each and every little bit of data that my previous 7 install has left behind before doing a clean install.that way i can have a hd that is completely free of any junk whatsoever, at least before the new install. i have also heard about a data wipe method developed by the american department of defense that is specially designed to format/wipe all free space from an hd to the point that any data is completely unrecoverable. does anyone know anything about this? well, where i'm at its about 30 minutes before midnight and i want everyone here to have a great christmas. thanks for any help, reply soon..................................

 

[salchin1]

Enable Windows Update

Enigma, you need to look in a few locations to see if updates have been disabled. You said you had a play in group policy so here's some locations to start and the settings you need to check to make updates available for your login. This should work!

1. gpedit.msc. Go to User Configuration/Admin Templates/Start Menu and Task Bar. Make sure Remove Links and access to Windows Updates is set to 'Not Configured'. This setting is extremely important because it turns on or off the ability to click on the 'Check for Updates' feature. If this setting is enabled you will get the prompt "Windows Update cannot currently check for updates, because updates on this computer are controlled by your system administrator". This is the one causing your problems!

2. gpedit.msc. Go to Computer Configuration/Windows Components/Windows Update and check the setting of the policy Configure automatic updates. This should be set to 'Not configured' for non domain PC's.
With this policy set to 'Enable' it sets the schedule for searching the Windows Update database. This means you would not be able to override this setting unless you were the root administrator. Make sure this is set to 'Not Configured'.

3. gpedit.msc. Go to Computer Configuration/Admin Templates/System/Internet Communication Management/Internet Communication Settings and make sure the policy Turn all access to Windows Update features is set to 'Not Configured'. This setting will allow access to the Windows Update feature via Internet Explorer. You can then access this under the Safety command bar item.

These are the settings we use in our domain environment but you may need to check in either Computer Configuration or User Configuration depending on where you made the changes originally.