What Causes Windows Error 0x80070005

I'm running Windows Vista (Home Premium) When I click "Check for Updates" in Windows Update I get the following error:

"Windows could not search for new updates Error(s) found: 0x80070005"

I'm running Windows XP and when I click "Check for Updates" in Windows Update I get the following error:

"[Error number: 0x80070005] The website has encountered a problem and cannot display the page you are trying to view. The options provided below might help you solve the problem."

...or perhaps you are a network administrator and your Windows "boxes" refuse to take automatic WSUS updates from your internal WSUS server?

In particular this error 0x80070005 seems to be an issue after installing the Windows XP SP3 service pack, though I have seen it on Vista machines too.

The issue seems to come down to an error with Windows Genuine Advantage Validation on the PC in question.

So here is the solution on How to fix 0x80070005 Error