Finally fixed it after ages of ignoring it. seems to be a missing registry
value. to solve it i manually created a registry value at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Security Center
in here there are values like AntivirusOverride, FirewallOverride,
UpdatesDisableNotify etc... about 6 values. There was no value here for
"UpdatesOverride" on my machine so i added it in as a REG_DWORD and set it to
0. this seems to have solved my problem.

"luke_thomas" wrote:

> I'm also running SP2 on laptop and am experiencing exactly the same problem.
> Following reboot, security center informs me that automatic updates have been
> turned off.
> However, in order to restart Automatic Updates, I have to remove a REGEDIT
> entry that has marked Automatic Updates for deletion.
> I'm pretty sure its a virus, but it seems to be one that has evaded my
> Microsoft AntiSpyware, my firewall, and ad-aware. I presumed they'd be able
> to identify it.
>
> Does anybody know what the virus is called and how it can be removed?
>
> Thanks, and good luck Mr_Moe
>
>
>
> "Mr_Moe" wrote:
>
> > Hi, im running my laptop on XP SP2 and every time i reboot it i get the same
> > message saying automatic updates are turned off and i have to manualy turn
> > them back on again in the security centre.
> >
> > I have run numerous spyware and virus scans that have all come back clean
> > and i tried reinstalling SP2 as well but all to no avail.
> >
> > Any help would be much apreciated. Thanks in advance.