1. The error message "Error retrieving update info file" usually appears when Spybot-S&D has accidently imported bad Internet Explorer proxy settings. In this case, it helps just to disable the proxy option in Spybot-S&D: Open the Settings section and go to the Settings page. Locate the Use proxy entry in the Automation - Web update category, and disable it. If you cannot see the Settings section, start Spybot-S&D in advanced mode (see your Start menu group for Spybot-S&D).

This information is also available in our How-To section (including a screenshot): http://www.spybot.info/en/howto/proxy.html

2. Please check your firewall. Most people who do not have problem #1 do have Spybot-S&D accidentally blocked in their firewall.

3. If nothing else works, you can still use the manual updater, which is available on the website: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/download/index.html - the Detection Update. (Notice: if the Info page does not show the correct update date after installing the updates with the manual updater, please ignore that - this will be fixed with the next release)