why has vista stopped automatic updates?

For the time being, Microsoft Update is broken. With Microsoft Update enabled, Windows Update is broken. See:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-update/error-code-80248015/aeae2fcd-100a-4478-8da4-a2b9558c229e

Regards, VZ :(

Thanks for that VZ, I will keep checking the forum and checking Windows Update.

...To cut a long story short, my Windows Update (which was Microsoft Update) has recently lost the option to check other Microsoft Products, which in my case is Office 2007, and now only shows updates for Windows, which is not any use as I am running Vista.

Hi Hawkeye58:

Once you have disabled the setting for Microsoft Update (Windows Update | Change settings | Microsoft Update | Give me updates for Microsoft products and check for new optional Microsoft software when I update Windows) the option to receive Microsoft Updates is completely removed and can be very difficult to get back again.

Since you use MS Office 2007 the instructions at the bottom of ElderN's post Microsoft Update Option (like MS Office) Missing from Windows Update Settings to make a registry edit (i.e., go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\General and change the ShowOptIn value from 1 to 0) and then sign up for Microsoft Updates again from Word 2007 or another Office 2007 application often works.  If you aren't comfortable editing your Windows registry then there are a few other suggestions in my 18-Mar-2017 post on page 44 of m#l's thread Updates not working, it has been searching for updates for hours that might also help.

Further to VolumeZ's comment <here> about problems with the Windows Update on Win 7 machines, Gunter Born's blog entry Windows 7: Fix broken Update (Error 0x80248015) 12/4/17 notes that Microsoft has released a fix, and he has another low-tech suggestion on how affected users can get Microsoft Update working again - install the MS Silverlight browser plugin in IE and select the option to use Microsoft Update for updating in the installation wizard.

32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox ESR v52.5.0 * NS v22.11.2.7 * MS Office Professional 2003

I have got the options for the other products in the update back again.

What I simply did was on the Windows Update screen at the bottom where it says Get updates for other Microsoft products. Find out more....I selected Find out more which took me to the Microsoft Update website using Internet Explorer.

I then selected to install it, confirmed it and it then said it was installed and took me to the Windows Update screen and was checking for updates.

When I selected to change the settings, the option to select Microsoft Updates and Software Notifications had re-appeared and were selected, so it all looks good again.

I then selected to Never check for updates and rebooted the machine.

I will now watch the Patch Tuesday forum for the next lot of updates as usual.

Many thanks for taking the time to reply, it is appreciated.

Cheers Great White North.

Hi VZ.   Simple question i am using w/ vista is it worth upgrading to windows7.