I have been trying to re-install Win7 on a dell laptop for the last 3 days. The installation from disc works fine but I just cannot get Windows update to work. It just sits on 'checking for updates'. I had a similar issue on another pc last week and I finally got it working after 2 days. Currently I have left it overnight and all day at one point but it does nothing. The date and time is correct and all relevant drivers are loaded. This is a brand new install. It shouldn't be this difficult. I see lots of pages on the web where people seem to have the same problem but have so far had no recommendations that work, and lots of sites that describe my issue exactly and then try to flog me some crap fix-software. Microsoft must be aware of this. Does anybody have the answer please? Thank you.