why has vista stopped automatic updates?

I suggest that what has really happened is that Microsoft turned off updates on many Vista and Win 7 systems. I struggled with this problem on both systems as both stopped doing updates last summer. I tried everything- managed to update some manually. Then a few weeks ago, both systems magically did updates when I wasn't even trying- due, I think, to Microsoft turning them back on.

I don't know how Microsoft has managed this- what their methodology was- which systems the decided to not update and why all of a sudden, for me, both updated on the same day. I can only presume it's due to Win10- which  most people downloaded- so that used up much of MS bandwitch- and, as many have suggested, MS wanted us to move to W10. I'm rather ticked off at MS for this. No other explanation makes sense- it was all due to MS. We are all owed an apology for all the time and effort we've put into this- with little or no help from them- and certainly they're not going to admit it was a conscious decision by them.

I'm happy to report that yesterday, my VISTA windows updates woke up from its slumber and finally downloaded security updates. I had downloaded manually for the last while from the info on this thread.

The security updates that were successfully automatically downloaded yesterday (April 6, 2017) were the following:

KB 4011981

KB 3216916

KB 4012864

KB 3218362

KB 3205715

KB 890830 (Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool)

KB 4013867

KB 915597 (Definitions Update for Windows Defender)

Hope this helps.

Here's what worked for me. I set my update preferences to "Never check for updates" for 2 weeks, and then turned it back on. Bingo! it worked. The updates downloaded perfectly. I suggest you try this if you haven't already.

Good luck.

I'm happy to report that yesterday, my VISTA windows updates woke up from its slumber and finally downloaded security updates. I had downloaded manually for the last while from the info on this thread.

The security updates that were successfully automatically downloaded yesterday (April 6, 2017) were the following:

KB 4011981

KB 3216916

KB 4012864

KB 3218362

KB 3205715

KB 890830 (Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool)

KB 4013867

KB 915597 (Definitions Update for Windows Defender)

Hope this helps.

Here's what worked for me. I set my update preferences to "Never check for updates" for 2 weeks, and then turned it back on. Bingo! it worked for me. The updates downloaded perfectly. I suggest you try this.

Good luck.

Shoshanna,

you need to follow the Standalone Installer procedures to manually install the KBs spelled out by Volume Z and OUgrad's responses earlier in this thread.  That's what I did to get my Vista updates to download.

A key point in that procedure is to go into Windows Updates Settings, select the bottom choice in the pull-down menu, then REBOOT your PC.  Go ahead with installing the KBs manually, one at a time, then set Updates to Automatically receive and install, and finally select "Check for Updates".

Hope this helps.

-Frederick