Virus Program Won't Update Automatically?

I ran into a situation where my Norton Internet Security hasn't been updating itself for weeks. I've been manually updating it despite the settings that indicated it should be doing so on it's own. It would be a good idea to verify you are not in the same situation since we tend to assume it's doing what it's supposed to.

Here's what I found out.
When 'windows' tries to install new updates and they fail, it can cause this to happen. Apparently windows installation files briefly turns off virus software updates. After the installation is complete, it then turns them back on again. However if it fails to install properly, it can sometimes leave the viral software's ability to process updates turned off.

There are four methods I came across that claim to fix this. I shall give you first the one that worked for me. I have a free program called 'CCleaner' I used it to scan the registry for errors. When it was done scanning it found faulty 'Application Paths'. I checked the boxes for them 'Fix Selected Errors'. It cleared the problem up and Norton started updating itself again after weeks of not doing so. The CCleaner is available for free HERE.

I have words of caution when using CCleaner's registry cleaner. Uncheck the boxes that search for 'Unused File Extensions' & 'Active X And Class Issues'. Also make sure you don't fix 'Unused Registry Keys' in the results. Sometimes these files are threaded in ways that CCleaner doesn't understand and can mess things up.

OK, so I scared the bejeezus out of you. Here's a couple of other ways I've come across on the net in which other people fixed the problem. BUT first let me remind you to "ALWAYS CREATE A RESTORE POINT" so that if things go awry you can go back. That said...

Some folks had update installation problems simply because their clock & date was set wrong. Check that out #1. One of the ones I didn't try, but sounds like the least troublesome is to manually turn off viral updating, reboot and then turn it back on.

Failing that, some have claimed this worked for them
What I would recommend differently is that you move them to another folder you create. That way you can always put them back if it doesn't work. I'm also a little leery of this method because this is the folder windows looks for if you should ever want to uninstall these updates.

The final solution I found is a bit more complex. This comes from some techies in a forum at Microsoft. One of the side effects of doing things this way is windows no longer displays a history of installed updates, but on the other side of the coin neither does it recognize prior installation errors.
Clearing the Windows Update history
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1. Click "Start", click "Run", and type "cmd" (without quotations) and press "Enter". Run the following command in the opened window to stop the Automatic Updates service. Type in "net stop WuAuServ" (without quotations) and press "Enter"... make sure it says that it was successfully stopped before trying to rename the following file.

2. Now open up windows explorer and navigate to "C:/Windows/SoftwareDistribution/DataStore". Locate the DataStore.edb file. Right-click on the file, select "Rename" and type " DataStoreold" (without quotations) to rename this file.

3. Return to the Command Window and type the command "net start WuAuServ" (without quotations) to restart the Automatic Updates service.

4. You can verify the history has been erased by opening up the windows update and reviewing "installed updates". You should no longer see a history of any of the installed updates anymore.Like I mentioned in the beginning I much prefer using the CCleaner because (1) I know it works.(2) It only removes references to bad files that were downloaded w/o actually erasing them. (3) CCleaner can restore the changes if this doesn't work. The other methods eliminate the files and history of them whereas using this method it does not.

WORD TO THE WISE:
If someone's not comfortable with doing any of these, they should not. Alternatively they should update the viral software manually as frequently as possible. Sometimes when people mess with things they are not clear about they create more damage then a virus would.