Vista - Problematic Updates in Windows Vista

This post is based on information from my posts of the same name in the
newsgroup 'microsoft.public.windowsupdate'.

If you have any problems installing updates for Windows Vista then you can
try activating the main Administrator account in Vista and running Windows
Update from there. Note that the main Administrator account is not the same
as a standard account with elevated privileges - it is a completely separate
account which is normally hidden. I am not sure why this works - it could be
that the main Administrator account allows updates to write to areas of the
operating system that are inaccessible to standard accounts. Please see below
for instructions on activating the main Administrator account. Please note
that I recommend that you disable this account when you have finished with it
and run using your normal standard account. I also recommend that you do not
install updates for any of your hardware devices from Microsoft Updates
(except for hardware manufactured by Microsoft) - instead go directly to the
manufacturers website and get the updates from there.

Procedure for adding and removing the Administrator account.

Step 1. Bring up the start menu by clicking the logo button on the taskbar
or by pressing the 'Windows Start' key on the keyboard.

Step 2. In the search box, type 'cmd'. Do not press 'Enter/Return'.

Step 3. Instead, press and hold down 'Ctrl', 'Shift' and 'Enter/Return'.

Step 4. In the user accounts dialog box that appears, select the name and
enter the password of the administrator account that you created when first
installing Vista and click 'OK'.

Step 5. You should now be at the command prompt. Note that if you do not
follow Steps 2 and 3 as above, you will arrive at the command prompt but it
will be the incorrect one. The prompt should be 'C:\Windows\System32>'. If
not, Steps 6 and 7 will give you these error messages: 'System error 5 has
occurred' and 'Access is denied'.

Step 6. To turn on the account, type 'net user administrator /active:yes'.
Continue on to Step 8.

Step 7. To turn off the account, type 'net user administrator /active:no'.

Step 8. Close the command console.

Step 9. Open the Control Panel.

Step 10. Click 'User Accounts and Family Safety' then 'User Accounts' then
'Manage another account'.

Step 11. In the user accounts dialog box that appears, select the name and
enter the password of the administrator account that you created when first
installing Vista and click 'OK'.

Step 12. If the Administrator account is currently active, you should see
the account displayed. If not, and you wish to make the account active, then
repeat this procedure from Step 1, making sure to use Step 6 and not Step 7.

Step 13. Select the Administrator account by clicking on it.

Step 14. The account will be password protected, so in the list of options
that appears click 'Remove the password'.

Step 15. After accepting the warning and removing the password, you will be
returned to the list of options.

Step 16. Select 'Create a password' and follow the instructions to create a
new Administrator password.

Step 17. Close the Control Panel.

Step 18. You will now be able to select the Administrator on startup. Note
that if the password has expired, you may reset it by beginning at Step 9.

Step 19. If you wish to remove the Administrator account, the repeat the
procedure from Step 1, omitting Step 6 and finishing at Step 8.

Just one point that I would like to add to the above procedure. This method
works for activating the hidden Administrator account in Windows Vista Home
Premium (32-bit) and should work for all other 32-bit versions. This may also
work for the 64-bit versions, but, as I do not have a 64-bit version, I
cannot say one way or the other.

Just another point. When you check Windows update to see whether updates have
successfully installed, it will usually say succeeded. That, however, does
not mean that the update has installed correctly - it only means that the
update downloaded correctly. To check that the update has indeed installed
correctly, use the Belarc Advisor program available from www.belarc.com. Be
sure to use the latest edition.

For your information, my system is Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit) with
Norton Internet Security 2007 fully updated and I do not need to change any
settings to allow updates to succeed with this method.