Change Update Settings Win 7 Starter 32 Bit - Messed Up

Here are Microsoft's Instructions to Change Settings for Updates

"...In the left pane, click Change settings.

Under Microsoft Update, select the Give me updates for Microsoft products and check for new optional Microsoft software when I update Windows check box.

To get notifications of new Microsoft software, select the Show me detailed notifications when new Microsoft software is available check box..."

See the attached two (2) .png images. On my 32 Bit Windows 7 Starter, notice how the required boxes needed to check are not shown. I would like to have this ability - just like on my 64 Bit Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit Notebook. Seems like Microsoft goofed up something in their system software for Windows 7 Starter 32 bit.

Any ideas how to get the missing check boxes? Maybe with REGEDIT? Or something else?

From experience I know that Win 7 Starter has some items removed, might it not be that your OS has these update settings missing?

No, that is not correct for this issue. The reason I know this is because even though I nave the .NET framework installed on both my 32-bit Windows 7 Starter netbook and on my 64-bit Windows Home Premium notebook, I no longer get security updates for the .NET framework (or Microsoft Word, etc.) on my netbook, but I do get the security updates on my 64-bit notebook.

Does anybody else have a solution?

The tutorial was not helpful because of one flaw: It only works IF the default browser is Internet Explorer. I only use Chrome, so the link to "Find Out More" just goes to a Microsoft page for beginners (Go to All Programs and click on Windows update...)

By searching the web, I DID finally find a solution that works for those of us with the same problem who do not use Internet Explorer. Here is the URL:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/danbuche/...ia-script.aspx

Include Other Microsoft Products Script:

Set ServiceManager = CreateObject("Microsoft.Update.ServiceManager")
ServiceManager.ClientApplicationID = "My App"
'add the Microsoft Update Service by GUID
Set NewUpdateService = ServiceManager.AddService2("7971f918-a847-4430-9279-4a52d1efe18d",7,"")

Exclude Other Products Script:

Set ServiceManager = CreateObject("Microsoft.Update.ServiceManager")
ServiceManager.ClientApplicationID = "My App"
'remove the Microsoft Update Service by GUID
ServiceManager.RemoveService("7971f918-a847-4430-9279-4a52d1efe18d")

Just open Notepad, save the contents of the first script as "script.vbs" (without any extra .txt extension !), open a command prompt as Administrator, change directory to where you saved the script, and run it by typing script.vbs at the prompt. There is no output but you will see the checkbox "Give me updates for Microsoft products and check for new optional Microsoft software when I update Windows" inside the Windows Update settings dialog.

This is an excellent script for those of us who do not use Internet Explorer but can no longer change the "Get updates for other Microsoft products" - the link is not doing anything since it relies on iexplorer.exe and even if you visit the link it will only allow you to change the setting in Internet Explorer not any other broweser like Chrome or Firefox.