If you've ever gotten the error below when you go to Windows Update on a machine or Windows Update is completely missing from the Tools menu in Internet Explorer, it's fortunately an easy registry change to temporarily back out.
Network policy settings prevent you from using this website to get updates for your computer.
If you believe you have received this message in error, please contact your system administrator. Read more about steps you can take to resolve this problem (error number 0x8DDD0003) yourself.
This is generally set as a group policy setting and thus will get refreshed, but, you can delete the registry value below and restart your browser and Windows Update will work again at least temporarily.
Key - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Type - REG_DWORD
Value Name - NoWindowsUpdate
I'm of course not recommending that you circumvent your organization's policies, but, since I periodically need this setting and I usually forget it, I've put it here for the permanent record.
