OK, I’m not technical so sorry if I’m not great at explaining.
I have a Sony Vaio laptop. I’ve always used FREE virus checkers, but today I treated my laptop to McAfee virus protector. I went to download it and it wouldn’t download. I went onto the chat they have where the guy told me that I needed a Windows Service Pack (he went remote on my laptop and saw I didn’t have one).
OK, so I didn’t know what this was. He tole me to call their tech master dept. All well and good, but they want £89 to tell me how to get the service packs.
So I searched Google what a service pack is and I believe there are 3 out. I also think I need to download service pack number 1 first.
I tried this and downloaded it, the 64-bit, not the 32 as I have 64-bit (see told you I’m not technical). OK, so when I go to run it won’t run. It says I need to chek for system readiness. So I downloaded that and that won’t work either.
I’ve checked my Windows updates and that seems to be all up to date with no new items to download. What I can see from past updates is that some last year failed. Only about 5-6 out of hundreds.
One thing i will add – I came on here about a month ago saying I didn’t have Internet Explorer. Everyone replied with oh you must have it, just search for it. I’ve searched and searched and it’s not there. Could somehow I be missing part of Windows?
And if so, I don’t ever remember having a disc that came with my laptop. My laptop box is in the attic and I’m pregnant and can’t get up there to get the disc!
Please help!
6 Answers -
Bruce Epper
May 29, 2012If you are using Windows Update and it says there are no more updates available for your computer, yiou will already have all of the patches corresponding to the latest service pack for your operating system. You can check this by right-clicking on Computer (My Computer on XP) and selecting Properties from the context menu.
The window that pops up with Vista and Winy will have a section called Windows edition which has the version of Windows you are running, a copyright notice, and the service pack installed on the computer. For Vista, this should be Service Pack 2. For Windows 7, it should be Service Pack 1.
Under Windows XP, the dialog box will have similar information on the default tab (I don’t remember offhand what it is called) that states the edition of Windows that is runniing and the Service Pack level which should be 3.
If you are not at the latest service pack level for your operating system, you can download and manually install it from here http://support.microsoft.com/sp. DO NOT DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL IT FROM ANYWHERE ELSE!!! If you are running Vista, you will need to have SP1 installed before you can install SP2. If you are running XP, you must have SP1a or SP2 installed before you can install SP3.
Mike
May 29, 2012What version of Windows are you actually running?
* press “Windowskey + R”, type “winver” in the box and click ok
* The important information is the part “Version 6.1 (Build 7600)” something like that.
Sometimes updates fail to to install (for one reason or another) and are usually installed at a later time. This is not the part that concerns me.
If Windows Update doesn’t list any new updates or the Service Pack this could mean some problem with your local Windows Update files or a corrupt update cache. This would also explain why the manual installation of the Service Pack fails.
To fix the majority of Windows Update problems there is an unofficial Microsoft tool which made it to the public. All you have to do is download and run it.
http://download.mshelper.de/microsoft/windows/update/au_check_v78f.exe
* It is recommended to temporarily deactivate third party anti-virus and firewalls. You are free to scan the file running it. According to Virustotal it is free of malware and I have used it myself about a week ago.
https://www.virustotal.com/file/80b62461f30997b8ba0708b610bb52e93f75872b7a4d1f306f7f02130b882fd4/analysis/1337271449/
Once you have run the tool I suggest to restart the computer and try installing the Service Pack again.
—-
Usually the best way to get a full list of available updates is Microsoft Update by visiting the following link within Internet Explorer. http://www.update.microsoft.com/
This brings us to your previous problem of your missing Internet Explorer.
As you have been told Internet Explorer is indeed installed with every Windows installation. It may just be the visual access e.g. a shortcut or Start menu entry that is missing.
Usually the “explorer.exe” is located within either “C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer” or “C:\Program Files (86)\Internet Explorer”.
If it’s not there you can try downloading and running the following FixIt solution:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/318378
ha14
May 29, 2012You can download the latest version of internet explorer from here
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/internet-explorer/downloads/ie-9/worldwide-languages
choose your desired language and your operating system
Kannon Y
May 30, 2012This is a really hard to diagnose issue, since there are so many potential causes.
Did you try enabling Internet Explorer from the add-remove menu? I suggested it last time, but I got to the keyboard a bit late and you may have missed it. However, I suspect that if you did check, IE was missing from the list entirely. Which means you should have to reinstall IE from the MS website.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/internet-explorer/products/ie/home
Before you try reinstalling, I’ll restate the basic procedure and include annotated screenshots for enabling IE :
1. Go to the start menu and click on the empty box in the lower left
hand side of the screen.
2. Type in “add or remove”
in the box provided. Select “add or remove programs”.
3. In the upper lefthand pane, there’s a feature called “turn windows features on or off“.
Select it.
4. Once you pick it, you’ll be presented with a screen that shows all
the programs by MS that are installed.
5. Make sure the box next to Internet
Explorer is checked. Then hit “ok”.
After rebooting you should have access to IE. However, if you do not, please attempt to reinstall it:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/internet-explorer/products/ie/home
Alan Wade
May 31, 2012Which operating system is it you have XP or Vista?
You could open an elevated command prompt window by clicking on Start then in the search box type CMD.
Right click the cmd search result and then on Run as Administrator.
In the window that opens type sfc /scannow and press enter.
Note that there is a space between sfc and /
this will scan your system for errors and attempt to repair them.
Jon Smith
May 31, 2012Wow they just want your money
I wasnt able to install SP1 before but I had to reinstall W7 before I could update
now Im fine!