How to turn on Automatic Updates in Windows

Posted on August 24, 2008 at 5:29 am

Recently, I went to Windows Update to update my computer and was presented with an error page stating that Automatic Updates was not turned on because certain Windows services were not running! Apparently, someone had turned off the Automatic Updates services and therefore I could not update my computer.

Automatic Updates can be turned on via the Control Panel or via the Services tool. I’ll first explain how to do it using the Control Panel since that’s the most common method.

Turning on Automatic Updates via Control Panel

First, click on Start and click on Control Panel. Double-click on Automatic Updates to bring up the configuration dialog. If you’re in Category view, you’ll have to click on Security Center.

Make sure to choose Automatic (recommended) if you want to turn on Automatic Updates and have your computer updated automatically without you having to do anything (like approve updates, etc). You can infer from the description what the other options will do. Read my previous post on how to disable the restart now message in automatic updates.

Now if your computer is not messed up (like mine), that’s all you have to do to turn on Automatic Updates. However, in my case, even with this setting, I was still not getting any updates! I tried to go to the Windows Update site and I got the following error message:

The site cannot continue because one or more of these Windows services is not running:

So in case my case, I had to go and manually turn on the Windows update services in order to get any updates on my computer. I was in a corporate environment and this was the reason for the services not being turned on.

To turn them on, go to Start, Control Panel and then Administrative Tools. If you’re in Category View, you have to go to Performance and Maintenance.

Then click on Services and you should see something like this:

The services you need to start are Automatic Updates, Background Intelligent Transfer Service, and Event Log. You can see whether they are on or not by checking under the Status heading.

To turn on a service, right-click on it and choose Start. If for some reason the Start option is greyed out, then you have to right-click and choose Properties. Change the Startup Type from Disabled to Automatic and click OK.

When you right-click on the service now, you’ll see that the Start option is no longer greyed out! That should hopefully get your computer working so that you can download updates for Windows! Enjoy!

» Filed Under Computer Tips

Comments

14 Responses to “How to turn on Automatic Updates in Windows”

loku gaby said on : October 22nd, 2008 at 12:15 pm

i had done all the above mentioned work but still my automatic updates is turned off. can anyone help me out.
my email id is shyam.ram882@gmail.com
thanks 4 ur help.

Laura said on : November 20th, 2008 at 3:06 pm

thanks a lot
this info helped so much
computer is now working

i4i said on : December 7th, 2008 at 11:14 am

I don’t have ‘Automatic Updates’ and ‘Transfer Service’ in the list.

akishore said on : December 12th, 2008 at 12:17 pm

If you don’t have Automatic Updates in the list of services, that means you need to go to the Microsoft Update website and allow it to install the necessary components. Also, you might have to install the latest XP Service Pack, which is SP2 right now.

Chris said on : December 27th, 2008 at 1:23 am

same problem as number one

Curtis A said on : January 10th, 2009 at 12:04 pm

My error message states:

The service cannot be started, either because it is disabled or because it has no enabled devices associated with it.

Laura said on : January 29th, 2009 at 10:25 pm

I have the same problem as number 6 I have done all the above and it did not fix my automatic updates. Can anyone help?

Bowser N64 said on : February 6th, 2009 at 3:34 am

OH MY GOSH YOU SAVED MY LIFE! I did everything and my computer is saved! Thanks!

Ethan S said on : February 27th, 2009 at 9:49 pm

I have the same problem as 6 and 7. I have also done lots of research and tried everything and I still cant get it to start. Please help.

Taty said on : March 29th, 2009 at 5:35 am

My automatic updates is finally turn on.Thanks 4 ur help

Edric said on : May 22nd, 2009 at 12:48 am

Same problem as number 1, changed to automatic but still grayed out, and when I open properties it goes back to disabled

Jen said on : June 9th, 2009 at 3:54 pm

A real d’oh question. Will my automatic updates work if my laptop is turned off?

josh said on : June 30th, 2009 at 3:36 pm

I do this and it says Access Denied when I try to turn it on from Services. I am running it from the Administrator account on this laptop.