How to fix 1706 Computer Error?

On several occasions, I've had people tell me they turned on their computer for the first time on a particular day and immediately after boot up they were greeted with a 1706 error. Other times, I've heard it said this error message popped up when trying to start Outlook Express. This too would be a common time to receive a 1706 error. Actually, this error could happen upon opening any program.

The error message usually received during a 1706 situation is; "error 1706: No valid source could be found." The valid source is any one the operating system can't find upon demand. So, why would this happen when the PC worked great the last time it was used and you didn't do anything different to the computer and in many cases you were not making the operating system look for any source?

What is a wupdmgr.exe?

From my experience, I've noticed the mysterious 1706 error always seems to happen after one of Microsoft's automatic updates. Updates involve the use of the program wupdmgr.exe. A wupdmgr.exe is the Windows update manager.   One school of thought is you can help the operating system find the missing source file by downloading and installing a new wupdmgr.exe.

In a roundabout way, this could fix the problem many times because a corrupt update manager will of course, cause a faulty update and a new one may do the job right.   Some old school computer geeks have actually been known to disable the update manager and manually replace any missing registry files the old one created. Then, their practice would be to handle all updates themselves.  As much as a control freak as I am, I have never done this.

Here is the way you should look at any computer problem that involves some file that cannot be found. The place the operating system goes to find anything is its registry. A Windows operating system registry keeps inventory of everything it needs to function. It even keeps track of what background each user's desktop has. The registry is the ultimate index of all time. It has countless entries each telling the operating system where it can find what it needs to complete its next instruction.

Where Have You Gone Outlook Express?

Now consider the "valid source" the OS can't find could be Outlook Express. Where could Outlook Express go? Sometimes the missing source is the network. Where could the whole network have disappeared to? Sure, the network could be down. However, in such a case an operating system would be able to find the down network and it would be capable of telling you the network isn't working. The network being missing has a whole other connotation.

What I am driving at is when an operating system can't find something, it usually happens because the registry has become corrupted and it is giving the operating system inaccurate directions to the file it needs.   This would be a much more common situation than having a source file completely disappear from a hard drive.

The way to take care of a 1706 error or any situation where an error message talks about missing software or hardware is to run a reliable registry cleaner. This will take care of these problems 95+% of the time. Most often a 1706 error is the result of missing registry keys and a good registry repair program will reinstate these keys.

So this is the bottom line. You get a 1706 error message. You run a trustworthy registry cleaner. Then, the problem disappears and since you continue to run this registry cleaner every week or so, the error never comes back. There, now isn't this easier than going around the internet looking for a new Windows update manager?