FlyingFreak welcome to the forums...

If you're running Vista or maybe XP? Make sure you have your UAC (User Account Control) Turned off in your control panel, then User Accounts, before you really do anything in FS One, it messes up all kinds of crap on it... not sure about your problem with the update thing, may be the UAC, but if not its not a big deal I guess ha as long as you can still get on the simulator. But I have noticed that you can't make copies of aircraft while the UAC is on