Windows 7 does not update

To setup Windows update to scan for Microsoft or other products it can update you will need to do the following:

1. Start menu -> Windows update

2. near the middle/bottom you will see text talking about updating other products on your system, click on the blue text and it should either pop up a website in Internet explorer, or ask if you want to allow it.

3. If it asks you to allow/deny, clicking allow, and then checking for updates should now give you additional updates that you seek

   If it pops up a website, you'll need to follow the guide on it, then check "i accept" and hit the apply equivalent button with the shield on it

4. It should now take you back to your Windows update, and the text will still be there, you need to click on the blue link again, and go back to 3a.

The cause of this is either

• Not enough free disk space
• Windows Update being snotty with SP1

In the case of point 1, that's easy to sort, but I suspect that you have sufficient disk space available for that.

In the case of point 2, as pointed out here, Windows Update is screwing up the updates, and the way to fix this is to use the stand alone installer from Microsoft, which can be found at: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=23691

Here is another point you might find interesting, again, from that same SO post.

I had the same problem with later versions of Visual Studio (Visual Studio 2012, Visual Studio 2013), when trying to install Service Packs (SP2, SP3). Using the installer, it installed without problems.