Windows Vista Unable To Download Anything

Off to see the Daughter and Grandson next weekend and she has lined up my project while down there already!!
The limited info I have is:
Its a Dell laptop with Windows Vista 32-bit.
The "K" key is missing (dunno what that means although I get some weird text speak emails!!).
Any attempts at downloading anything fail. The downloads will go through all the motions, finish and then just disappear. I think this extends to Windows updates although when I asked Dell (my daughter) she responded with "what's those?"

I'm just hoping for a few pointers for what to look for before I get there.

I'm going to stick malwarebytes on a DVD and hopefully will be able to install it from there, although I'm not holding my breath. Just wondering what else people think I should stick on the DVD that would be really useful.

TIA

CCleaner, I would clean up all the junk that accumulated (temp internet files, cookies, etc..)

It shouldn't affect Windows Updates because they go to the "Temp" folder and then are installed and then deleted automatically.

All downloads in Windows 7 by default automatically go to the User's Name Account then the Downloads folder. Look for them there. Go to Start Orb, User Name (Top Right-hand Side) w/account picture then you'll see the Downloads folder with a blue arrow pointing down.

Should've put that before I mentioned Malwarebytes I suppose! I can imagine it will be very busy for a while.

Can somebody please give me a recent Vista update KB number so I can get her to check (peace of mind mode!).

Windows Updates are downloaded to C:/Windows/SoftwareDistribution/Download/
and are kept there after installing until they are manually deleted.

OK, I've just asked her to download CCleaner as a test while viewing the downloads folder. During the download she can see "a greeny square thing",*** a temp.exe I'm guessing, and a blank file. When the download window finishes and closes the temp files disappear and nothing replaces it. I asked her to try again but use "run" instead of save. I'm told the download window disappears, her disk activity lamp blinks away like billy-o for a few seconds, then nothing.Appears we're OK with regards the system updates. Latest dated one is 29th Sept. and this download issue has been going on for two or three months now.

*** I just love the 'puter geek tech talk. Taught her everything I know!!

The computer is downloading fine it seems.

It's moving the downloads to another folder once they are completed.

You'll have to see where that is by searching or whatnot. Shouldn't be very difficult.

Change the settings in I.E. or install FF.

Yea, best to wait until I'm hands on. Trying to get my Daughter to do anything mildly technical is an uphill struggle. As long as she can log on to Facebook and natter away with her mates then she's happy.

Malware bytes rules! thats always first step to recovering any pc I check out

My daughter is only 4 now but I know this day will come.......

Atleast she can open Internet Explorer and go to her favorite site for games.

Goodluck on the fix

Firefox will default the User Account Downloads folder too. I has to be configured to download to the folder of the user's choice, same as in IE.