Updating problems

[Sasquatch300WM]

Hi. I recently became aware that my laptop computer was not being updated despite the automatic updates being switched on.

When clicking on the 'updates' icon IE would come up but do nothing.

I updated to the latest (beta) version which finally told me I was offline (this is despite being able to access the internet through email and Thunderbird. (Yes the 'work offline' in the tools tab was unticked)

I finally figured it out that IE was not seeing my broadband (wireless) connection and managed to correct that problem although it will still startup and say it is offline and brings up the dialup connection window. (I have a dialiup connection for when I am away from home) . When I close the connection window it will then bring up the page. All this I can handle but the next problem has me stymied.

When I (finally) get to the updates page it goes through the 'checking to see if your computer has the latest version of windows updating software' page, then comes up with the following message:

Files required to use Microsoft Update are no longer registered or installed on your computer. To continue:

and ensure that the 'Register or reinstall the files for me now (Recommended)' button is selected then I click on 'continue'

The site then goes through what I supposed was a download and update and then comes up with the 'Try Microsoft Update today' page again after which I click on 'Start'. It then comes up with the 'Review the Licence Agreement' page.

I click 'Continue'.

And it goes back to the 'Checking to see if your computer has the latest version of windows updating software and from there to the 'Files required to use Microsoft Update are no longer registered or installed on your computer. To continue:' lline again and the whole process starts over.

Can anybody help me with this issue?

Apologies for such a long post but I wanted you to get all the details.

Thanks

P.S. Sorry if this has been mentioned before but nothing came up (actually nothing happened) when I used the search function.