why has vista stopped automatic updates?

Five manual downloads and installs??  Really?  Why not just build or improve upon the Win Update troubleshooter and let it do what's necessary for updates to work properly.

I found several more neighborhood PCs with Vista and Windows 7 that lost their ability to update (stuck at 0%).  But as one writer indicated, Microsoft couldn't care less.

Thanks Volume Z - THIS WORKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had been looking at the other threat about this issue since July trying several of the proposed solutions.

Nothing worked for me but this did.

You saved my life!!!!

It worked on my PC and laptop (still running 60updates as I am posting)

Now to those here before:

Five manual updates!!!!! - This is not as hard as it looks.

I first downloaded all to a Map in my downloads

I installed them one by one on the first PC but on the the second I installed them all together (except the Internet explorer update - I did that last).

If it does not work:

Volume Z said:

"Set automatic updates to "Never check for updates" and reboot prior to manual installation."

After reboot however I discovered that Windows Update service was still running.

So I stopped Windows Update Service .

Note : You need to do that again after restart if you update seperately.

Also : You still need to wait some time for updates to appear (it took about 15 minutes on the laptop)

KB3191203       http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=KB3191203

KB3203859       http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=KB3203859

KB3204723       http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=KB3204723

KB3205638       http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=KB3205638

KB3203621       http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/Search.aspx?q=KB3203621

The Update Client is inappropriate for processing these ones automatically. They need to be installed manually for Windows Update to work.

The Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer does not apply if IE9 is not installed.

If your installation is eligible for KB3128022 and KB3128024 (Office 2003, 2007), KB3128019 and KB3128025 (Office 2007) or KB3128034 and KB3128037 (Office 2010), they need to be installed manually.

December 2016 Security Update for Microsoft Office

Set automatic updates to "Never check for updates" and reboot prior to manual installation.

Regards, VZ

I am not sure if installing these updates worked or not, as I have run so many updates trying to resolve this issue over the past week, but I will say after installing these updates and letting the "update program run for over 12 hours" it did report "27 updates to be installed" of these 23 have installed and 4 failed with errors 80070005 and 800705B4, I will follow up on this post if I get more info after a "restart".

UPDATE: Feb 26 2017

VZ,

Thanks!  Don't know how you all figure out these obscure workarounds, but my backup computer is now updated for another month.

Best,

PD