I experienced a Windows 7 automatic update (Downloaded and installed August 18th 2012 - evening) and when I attempted to access the internet on August 19th, I had no connectivity. Issue is not with wifi or service provider since another laptop functions normally. I went to system restore as of 15th August and was able to access as normal. But upon closing down the session, the absence of the updates triggers another Windows 7 update automatic install and the exact symptoms return upon restart. Any idea what the critical updates were for this period and which of them would cause this failure? Are there clear instructions available for starting from an acceptable state (August 15th) and only adding the updates that are compatible? What are the implications of not installing a Windows 7 critical update? What resident programs are likely sources of incompatibility. I have the usual assortment of annoying Dell crap on my system and I use Mcafee antivirus (which is current and has completed a scan finding nothing since this problem) but not a whole lot of other software that I can imagine would cause a conflict.

go to Control Panel Network and Internet Network and Sharing center Change adapter settings right-click your wireless adapter properties uncheck "Jumpstart Wireless Filter Driver" I had the same issue and this solved it for me, now if I could just get the updates to stop failing

The easiest way to find out if an update is causing the problem and which one is to restore back to the 15th, and immediately on boot up, go into Control Panel > Windows Update, and click on Change Settings in the left column. Under the first heading, Important Updates, choose something other than the recommended "Automatically download. . . " (I use "Download updates, but let me choose. . ."). Now, whenever updates are available, you'll be notified of them, and you can pick and choose which ones you want. To test which one may be causing your problem, install one of the available ones, reboot, and see if you still have network connectivity. Continue with this method until you find the one that's causing the problem. When you do, you can uninstall it through Control Panel > Programs and Features > View Installed Updates. Then, when it's offered to you again, uncheck it and right-click on it and select Hide this update. Hopefully that'll solve your problem. SC Tom

Thank you both. I restored Windows and reset the Windows Update. Curiously - and to my great frustration, the option to "Download but let me select which to Install" seemed to be ignored and was back to square 1. The option to select which to download corrects the difficulty. I can sort through the updates one-by-one (18?). If I find the one that is causing the phenomenon, can I do anything to determine the incompatibility with programs running on my system? Parametrically, if I uncheck the "Jumpstart wireless filter adapter" does your note suggest that this will cause updates to fail? I am a tiny bit concerned to ignore critical security updates? How big a deal is this? Does MS, which surely must monitor this board, go looking for the problem and issue an improved fix? What information would they need to identify the root cause? For now, I am grateful to be able to get to my e-mail, to skype my family and to access the internet. Thanks again.

Hi, You can set the Windows Update settings to Download updates but let me choose whether to install them according to Change how Windows installs or notifies you about updates. So you can manually install them to check which one cause this issue and then hide it. Hope this helps. Vincent Wang TechNet Community Support

I have had this problem as well, and thought it was my internet provider. I did a system restore to an earlier date ( August 15th) and my computer had internet access again. But this morning, it automatically updated and I had to restore again. I have changed the settings to download, but let me choose which to install, which was advised. Hopefully this will work and I will not have to keep restoring my computer to August 15th, everytime I start it. If anyone finds out which update causes the glitch please let me know. I would like to go back to installing updates automatically. Thanks.

This seems most promising and easiest to manage. McAfee seems aware and has the fix in from what I can gather fomr the link. In any case, seems like it is worth a try. I reckon that I might wait a while longer for MS to acknowledge and adjust? Thanks a lot for this.

From what I gather from the other post and the McAfee site, it's not a Microsoft problem. It's a McAfee problem, and they are aware of it, and they will take care of it. If it was a problem with a Microsoft update, more people without McAfee would also be having a problem. I have three Windows 7 machines (without McAfee) and don't have this problem with any of them. YMMV :-) SC Tom