Can't turn on Microsoft update in Windows 7 x86

OK .. I now have justification for bashing my head on the table.

I discovered another website that was not working with my VM - but I had a second VM for which it did work. In the VM that worked I had IE9, but in the VM that doesn't work I have IE11. That lead me to remembering that there had been "recent" changes in IE, and then adding that website to the IE11 "Compatibility" mode. After which it worked.

So … I added microsoft.com to the IE11 compatibility mode and all of a sudden I see what I expected:

Which finally led to the following (which looks very similar to the initial page I was seeing)

So the problem is that IE11 can't handle a Microsoft website. Oh the irony.

It's definitely an issue with IE11 as suggested by other posters. I needed to check the "Use Microsoft compatibility lists" option in the "Compatibility View Settings" in IE11 in order to be able access the correct page.

I tried adding the microsoft.com website to the IE11 compatibility list and it didn't work for me. Hopefully this works out for you.

You can enable Microsoft update with a vbs-script too if IE don't allow you at all;

Set ServiceManager = CreateObject("Microsoft.Update.ServiceManager") 
ServiceManager.ClientApplicationID = "My App"  
'add the Microsoft Update Service by GUID 
Set NewUpdateService = ServiceManager.AddService2("7971f918-a847-4430-9279-4a52d1efe18d",7,"")

or that one to undo the change;

Set ServiceManager = CreateObject("Microsoft.Update.ServiceManager") 
ServiceManager.ClientApplicationID = "My App"  
'remove the Microsoft Update Service by GUID 
ServiceManager.RemoveService("7971f918-a847-4430-9279-4a52d1efe18d")

reference there