Windows wont except any Updates?

Question

when my automatic updater pops up for window I hit update it acts like its going to update and then a box pops up that says" updates were unable to install" can someone tell me why

Answer 1

The first thing that comes to my mind is that you have an illegal copy. If this is the case - there's nothing you can do. This is how Microsoft prevents piracy. Another thing to consider is that you have to sign on as administrator to be able to download anything.

If you do have a legal copy, and you logged on as administrator:

Windows Won’t Update

In theory, Windows Update is a great timesaving tool. With it, you can check with Microsoft to see if there are any updates for your system and, if necessary, download and install those updates. Windows Update not only provides critical and general updates for Windows, it also can inform you when there are driver updates to your system. The problem is, sometimes those driver updates don’t install correctly when you try to install them. Fortunately, with a quick from Microsoft, you can quickly fix Windows Update

What causes the problem?
Windows Update is supposed to check to see what drivers are currently installed on your system and then compare that list against what’s available. According to Microsoft, if there are "a large number" of .INF files in the INF folder in your system directory, Windows Update may incorrectly guess which drivers to install.

Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t give any indication about what it thinks a large number is. You can check to see how many files are in your INF folder from either Explorer or a system prompt. When I checked mine, I found over 600 files, so it’s hard to say whether this doesn’t fit the definition of a large number or I’ve just been lucky. Whatever the definition, if you’re having the problem, that’s the reason why

Fixing the problem
You can quickly fix the problem by downloading a patch from Microsoft. There are two versions of the patch available—one for Windows 2000 and one for Windows XP. Don’t get them mixed up. If you install the wrong patch on the wrong operating system, you’ll cause yourself more problems. The Windows 2000 patch covers all versions of Windows 2000, including the server products. The XP patch covers all versions of Windows XP, including Windows XP Tablet PC Edition

Follow this link for more information.
Source: http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-22-5034446.html

Answer 2

You probably have a password protected for updates or your anti-virus software.