Need to be able to run windows update as an administrator

[Joe]

I'm running windows home premium 32-bit on a personal computer; no network
administrators or anything, no users other than myself, and no other user
accounts other than this one, which is marked as administrator. I seem to be
unable to run windows update as an administrator, though. When I go to change
the settings, they ones for when windows update runs(the four that control
what it does automatically and what it prompts me for, as well as the time
and frequency it would run automatically) are grayed out. There's a note at
the top that some of these may only be accessible my my system
administrator(me).
This is a picture of the settings page: i29.tinypic.com/jfc2ut.jpg

I tracked down wuapp.exe in system32 and tried to run that as an
administrator via right click; no change in behavior. Tried to go and check
the "run as administrator" box in its properties, but that's disabled. That
seems to be true of everything in the system32 folder, perhaps there's some
way I can circumvent this block?

I asked this in the windows update discussion group and was directed to file
a tech support request, which started out normal enough, but after one or two
suggestions I found myself questioning the relevance of the help I was
getting. In the last communication I got, it sounded like he thought I was
running windows XP(haven't heard back since then, that was a few days ago),
so maybe that was my fault. All the same though, I'm hoping that someone here
can give me some insight before I refile one of those requests. I don't seem
to have any other conflicts with administrator privileges, but all I want to
do is change when windows update runs. Is there somewhere that I can
temporarily completely disable administrative restrictions? Some obscure
setting that's blocking me? Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Ireneusz Makowski]

I'm running windows home premium 32-bit on a personal computer; no network
administrators or anything, no users other than myself, and no other user
accounts other than this one, which is marked as administrator. I seem to
be
unable to run windows update as an administrator, though. When I go to
change
the settings, they ones for when windows update runs(the four that control
what it does automatically and what it prompts me for, as well as the time
and frequency it would run automatically) are grayed out. There's a note
at
the top that some of these may only be accessible my my system
administrator(me).
This is a picture of the settings page: i29.tinypic.com/jfc2ut.jpg

Suggestion:

Have your computer scanned by AV, ASpy, immedietly.

Q:

There's a link "More information" on linked picture. Have you followed that
link? If yes, what kind of info have you got?

greets from Poland

Irek Makowski.

 

[Joe]

Are you refering to a specific program by "AV, ASpy", or just generic
antivirus/antispyware? I've had an active subscription of McAfee running for
a few months now.

The "More Information" link opens a page titled "Why won't Windows allow me
to change a system setting?" in Windows Help. It gives information on how
group policy may restrict certain things, and it advises me to contact my
system administrator. No good, seeing as how this is my own computer. There's
also information on what to do if the computer is not on a network(a major
A-ha! moment the first time I read that), but the advice there ends at
"contact a user with administrative privileges." Nothing on if you are a user
with administrative privileges(let alone the only user). There's a link to
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx, which seems to cater to
users who are very much above my level.

Perhaps someone could point me at a place to control group policy settings?
Windows seems to think that group policy would cause this restriction, but
offers no help on altering any such settings.

 

[wendy]

Are you refering to a specific program by "AV, ASpy", or just generic
antivirus/antispyware? I've had an active subscription of McAfee running for
a few months now.

The "More Information" link opens a page titled "Why won't Windows allow me
to change a system setting?" in Windows Help. It gives information on how
group policy may restrict certain things, and it advises me to contact my
system administrator. No good, seeing as how this is my own computer. There's
also information on what to do if the computer is not on a network(a major
A-ha! moment the first time I read that), but the advice there ends at
"contact a user with administrative privileges." Nothing on if you are a user
with administrative privileges(let alone the only user). There's a link to
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx, which seems to cater to
users who are very much above my level.

Perhaps someone could point me at a place to control group policy settings?
Windows seems to think that group policy would cause this restriction, but
offers no help on altering any such settings.

 

[Ireneusz Makowski]

Try this steps:
I hope you have 'gpedit.msc' with your version of Vista. (i'm using
Business)

Start:Run:type:'gpedit.msc' press enter

If Group Policy Object Editor opens than go to branch:

Computer(or User) Configuration:Administrative Templates:Windows
Components:Windows Update (
Double-click "Configure Automatic Updates"
Set it to "Not configured"

Note: In case it is already set to "Not configured", enable the Policy and
revert the setting back to "Not configured". This resets any registry based
Policy if set already.

greets from Poland

Irek Makowski

 

[Joe]

Aha! I fixed it! Only the business and ultimate versions of vista have that
gpedit.msc file, but a little googling turned up that it's really just a UI
for the registry. I had already dabbled with the registry trying to fix this,
but I had put everything back the way it was because I was only guessing what
certain entires did based on their name and what happened when I found them.
Luckily, I also found a spreadsheet online that lists everything gpedit.msc
normally does and found what I needed to change(had already played around
with that entry, but didn't know that it went as high as the value I needed
it to be at).

For anyone who has the same problem, open the registry editor(start
menu->run->regedit) and naviagte to
HKey_Local_Machine\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate\AU. Find
the entry named "AUOptions"(should be second on the list) and change its
value to 5(right click->modify->change whatever is in the 'value data' box to
5). This allows any user account with administrative access to modify the
settings.

This however, has not entirely fixed the problem; the option to disable
windows update is still grayed out, and there is still a notice that some
settings are managed by the system administrator, implying that group policy
is still active. I suppose it would be nice if microsoft would do an update
to the Home versions of vista and include gpedit.msc, since group policy
being active when it shouldn't doesn't seem to be an isolated
incident(counting myself, that makes three people with the exact same problem
who came looking here and posted. I know that three people out of the total
userbase might still be considered isolated, but that's only people who
actually came looking here for a solution and replied to something I posted).

Note: If anyone is reading this looking for a solution wants to disable
windows update, change the value at "NoAutoUpdate" to 1.

 

[Ireneusz Makowski]

Aha! I fixed it! Only the business and ultimate versions of vista have
that
gpedit.msc file,

Check this:
Group Policy Settings Reference Windows Vista
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...9b-3328-4350-ade1-c0d9289f09ef&DisplayLang=en

greets from Poland

Irek Makowski

 

[Joe]

Well, thanks for that; the spreadsheet I found and was using wasn't current
for vista(though the relevant key for my solution hasn't changed). I'm pretty
much done trying to solve this problem(unless it crops up somewhere else,
too...), but if you(or anyone else) sees something in that spreadsheet that
would be of use to me, I'm all ears. On the main screen for Windows Update it
still says "You receive updates: Managed By Your System Administrator.", with
a link to check online for updates. After performing that check, the link
changes to "Check for updates managed by your system administrator." I'm
going to check that every so often to see if anything is getting backlogged
there, but for now I'm going to assume that there are no more active blocks
in Windows Update.