[BigChiefHH]

Good day to all, and thanks in advance. I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop with one user/admin account, XP, IE7. I have full admin priveliges and no problems normally. I tried last night to go to Windows Update (the website, I'd disabled auto update, and made sure it was disabled with safeXP after finding that program here) but when I got to the site, it said that the system admin had disabled updates. I took off the safeXP block on auto update, but it's still not giving me any options when I bring up auto update in the control panel. And when, from the control panel window I click on Automatic Updates, everything is greyed out, so I click the link to the Automatic Updates website, it pops up a dialog box with "Windows update has been disabled by your system administrator." I've even <b>control panel, administrative tools, computer management, services and applications, services</b> and clicked the "restart" the service option. Still no dice.

I'm really not sure what has blocked this, as I have not had any other admin issues. I've accessed the updates in the last few months, but I can't recall exactly the last time. I've also tried logging out of the user account, ctrl + alt +del x2 in the quick login screen and the login box wouldn't let me log in as administrator. I'm kind of at a loss.

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To acess the default 'Administrator' account in XP home, you need to reboot and hold down F8 to bring up the advanced startup options. Choose "Safe Mode" and when the log-in appears you will see the 'Administrator' account. Don't worry about the graphics looking rough and huge, that's normal since safe-mode prevents the third-party video-driver from loading.

If updates still not possible, it could be that 'SafeXP' has not reset the Registry entry to unblock them, even though you've uninstalled it. Perhaps installing the latest version of SafeXP may rectify the problem, as on it's website it does mention problems with SP2 in earlier versions.

You might also want to check the 'Automatic Updates' service which SafeXP may have set to 'disabled' and failed to return it to it's proper setting. Start->Run. Type SERVICES.MSC and press [Enter]. Double-click 'Automatic Updates' -- startup-type should be set to "Automatic". If it isn't, change it then click it's 'Start' button. Then click OK to save changes. You will still be able to disable auto-updates in Control Panel but the service itself should be left on "Automatic".

Edited by pip22, 31 January 2007 - 02:33 AM.

[pip22]

To acess the default 'Administrator' account in XP home, you need to reboot and hold down F8 to bring up the advanced startup options. Choose "Safe Mode" and when the log-in appears you will see the 'Administrator' account. Don't worry about the graphics looking rough and huge, that's normal since safe-mode prevents the third-party video-driver from loading.

If updates still not possible, it could be that 'SafeXP' has not reset the Registry entry to unblock them, even though you've uninstalled it. Perhaps installing the latest version of SafeXP may rectify the problem, as on it's website it does mention problems with SP2 in earlier versions.

You might also want to check the 'Automatic Updates' service which SafeXP may have set to 'disabled' and failed to return it to it's proper setting. Start->Run. Type SERVICES.MSC and press [Enter]. Double-click 'Automatic Updates' -- startup-type should be set to "Automatic". If it isn't, change it then click it's 'Start' button. Then click OK to save changes. You will still be able to disable auto-updates in Control Panel but the service itself should be left on "Automatic".

Edited by pip22, 31 January 2007 - 02:33 AM.

[1101doc]

It is easy to forget that Windows updates is a "Service." Make sure that the "Automatic Updates" Service is set to "Automatic," and is started. Also required is "Background Intelligent Transfer." Also must be set to "Automatic" and started for updates to work. Or go to Microsoft Downloads and get the required updates manually.

[BigChiefHH]

Thanks for the ideas. I had already tried safe mode, and it was giving me fits, so I had to try something else to get to the admin account. It didn't help any, so I checked the Safe XP site for the latest update, which I already had. Come to find out, I probably didn't shut off everything I needed to in Safe XP, so I reset it to back before I'd run it the first time, and that opened up the updates. So, I got to spend a while downloading and updating.


Now, anyone know of a way I can get my computer to legally print money? J/K.