Solved – Windows Update redirects to Vista on XP machine
I recently worked on a laptop here that had a serious virus problem. After getting rid over 1300 virus-related items on the machine I tested Windows Update to see if it was still working. This is usually a pretty good test to run after clearing viruses as they like to disable Windows Update.
Instead of being disabled on this machine, the viruses had fiddled with the registry causing the PC to apparently report that it was running Vista rather than Windows XP. Using IE and selecting Tools/Windows Update, the user was redirected immediately to a Windows Vista update screen that showed how to reach WU under Vista. It was not possible to get to the proper screen.
I found a number of instances on the web where people had this same problem but not a good proven solution until I found this site: http://www.winhelponline.com/articles/35/1/Windows-Update-page-says-Thank-you-for-your-interest-in-obtaining-updates-from-our-site.html.
Deleting the registry keys as described immediately fixed the problem. Be sure to back up the keys first as described before attempting this fix
