After coming across a second computer that issues such as: hidden system restore, automatic updates/BITS disable, and windows antivirus ’10. I finally decided to research this problem and find a fix.

Well after preforming the common task: malware/virus/trojan/rootkit scans, search the registry for these keys or something in this nature:

HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Services)
ImagePath changed to: %fystemRoot%\System32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs
Start changed to: 0x00000004 (4) — disabled

HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\wuauserv (Automatic Updates)
ImagePath changed to: %fystemRoot%\System32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs
Start changed to: 0x00000004 (4) — disabled

HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Services\BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Services)
ImagePath changed to: %fystemRoot%\System32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs
Start changed to: 0x00000004 (4) — disabled

HKLM\SYSTEM\ControlSet003\Services\wuauserv (Automatic Updates)
ImagePath changed to: %fystemRoot%\System32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs
Start changed to: 0x00000004 (4) — disabled

Notice that there’s and “f” instead of an “S.” Preform the character swap for each key that has this problem. If you come across the problem about “error writing the value new contents,” click the key you want to modify, go to Edit> Permissions, then give administrator “Full Control.” Once you’ve completed this fire up services.msc and start up BITS, Alerter (There are 3 services you need to run in order to get the windows update page to work and I believe alerter was one of them). and Automatic updates.

This should conclude it.

Hope this helps.

EDIT: I mentioned the system restore tab gone so here’s the fix:

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\WindowsNT\Cu rrentVersion\
SystemRestore.
If a “DisableSR” value doesn’t exist, go to the Edit menu, select New, DWORD value, and create the value.
Set the value to 1 to disable System Restore or 0 to enable System Restore.
The DisableSR value is set to 0

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