A lot of people are experiencing a weird issue while trying to update their Windows Vista with SP1. In fact, the operating system could nag you that important updates are available, but when you try to update the system through the “check for updates” button you get back the following message: “The Automatic Updates feature is not configured on this computer”. After that a button to enable automatic updates is provided, but once you press it, you are faced with this new message: “Security Center can’t change your automatic update settings”. At this point, no matter what you do, you won’t manage to download the updates successfully. Here is the hack to fix the issue:
- Click Start.
- Click Run… (if Run is not present on the bar, find out how to activate it by reading this article).
- Type the following commands, and press Enter after each of them (also wait for the window saying the operation was performed successfully to appear)
- regsvr32 wuapi.dll
- regsvr32 wuaueng.dll
- regsvr32 atl.dll
- regsvr32 wucltui.dll
- regsvr32 wucltui.dll
Tags: hack, sp, update, Vista
If you're new to Webtlk.com and like what you read, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed or press CTRL+D to bookmark me. Thanks for visiting!
5 Comments to “Security Center can’t change your automatic update settings in Windows Vista”
Leave a Comment
Best screen resolution 1280x800 or higher.
Web Talk is best viewed in Firefox.



July 15th, 2008 at 7:18 am
It did not work for me. 4 out of the 5 failed to load. Automatic update still doesn’t work. Gets error 80070424 when I try to do so manually. Appreciate alternative solutions, thanks.
July 15th, 2008 at 8:00 am
Hi there Janmik and thanks for writing to Web Talk. Yes, I have other solutions for you. Try this:
1) Click Start.
2) Click Run…
3)In the open box, type this command: net.exe stop wuauserv
4) Press OK
5) Do the same for the following commands:
regsvr32.exe wuapi.dll
regsvr32.exe wups.dll
regsvr32.exe wuaueng.dll
regsvr32.exe wucltui.dll
regsvr32.exe MSXML3.dll
regsvr32.exe qmgr.dll
regsvr32.exe qmgrprxy.dll
net.exe start wuauserv
6) Turn off and on your computer
Here is a second solution:
1) Click Start
2) In the Search bar type regedit and hit Enter
3) Locate this key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\wuauserv
4) If you see a DeleteFlag value, delete it.
Here is a third solution:
1) Click Start.
2) Click Run…
3) Type the folowing commands and hit Enter after each of them:
%SYSTEMROOT%\SYSTEM32\REGSVR32.EXE
%SYSTEMROOT%\SYSTEM32\WUAUENG.DLL
Here is new solution:
1) Click Start
2) Click Run…
3) Type services.msc, and click OK.
4) In the Startup type box, click Manual, and then click Apply.
5) Click the Log On tab, and then verify that the service BITS is enabled in every hardware profile that is listed.
6) If the Service is not enabled or Started, click the hardware profile, click Enable, and then click Apply.
7) Now, click the General tab, and hit Start.
8 ) If the service is OK then:
9) Click Start.
10) Click Run…
11) In the Run Box, type Regsvr32 QMGR.DLL and hit OK
12) In case it doesn’t work, try to download and install the BITS service again here
Try also to read this article here
September 26th, 2008 at 9:54 am
Thanks a lot , it really got me out o the trouble.
November 15th, 2008 at 4:43 am
I have the exact same issue
however none of the fixes works for me… is there any other way to resolve this issue or am i going to have to reinstall windows vista to resolve…and what exactly causes this issue…pls HELP !
November 15th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Sorry Rictenwheel25 but I am clueless as far as your issue is concerned. I gave my best shots for this article but if you still are experiencing this issue I really dont know how to help you. I will search Google a little bit to see if I can come with other solutions…