Windows update service not running

Anonymous
2010-01-26T07:06:52+00:00

Today I tried running windows update and ran into a problem saying that windows update service might not be running and i need to restart my computer but after many restart its still not running.

edit: sorry I forgot to include that info my first post

windows 7 64 bit upgrade from vista 64

Mcafee security center 1 year subcription

I dont shutdown my computer its 24/7 my last windows update install was 01/13/2010. The automatic update service is not in the services.msc

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

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Anonymous
2012-06-25T13:42:20+00:00

If you get the error message that the update service is not running, the first thing to check is that the service is on automatic. If it is, then go to your automatic updates settings, and turn them completely off. It's the "not recommended" setting, never check for updates. After you have set updates to this, go to the control panel and manually check for updates. It worked well for me; it checked for the updates, installed them, and afterwards I could set it to automatic updates and it worked. This was on a Windows 7 system.

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Anonymous
2010-01-27T04:59:11+00:00

Thanks all for the support! But I think its a corruption problem and as I am looking into windows 7 programs some of them are not working anymore. so i decided to put in the win 7 dvd and did another upgrade from win 7 itself and it worked now after 4 hours of reinstallation

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  1. Anonymous
    2012-07-06T20:25:58+00:00

    Thanks Carl! clearing out the SoftwareDistribution folder worked for me too.

    Jim

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-06-29T14:50:21+00:00

    If you get the error message that the update service is not running, the first thing to check is that the service is on automatic. If it is, then go to your automatic updates settings, and turn them completely off. It's the "not recommended" setting, never check for updates. After you have set updates to this, go to the control panel and manually check for updates. It worked well for me; it checked for the updates, installed them, and afterwards I could set it to automatic updates and it worked. This was on a Windows 7 system.

    I tried this and it worked. One other symptom on my laptop was Windows Update window did not show any statistics. I had turned the automatic update off many months ago, since I didn't want to auto update when I am in some hotel room. I don't know when it got turned back on.

    Thanks

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-06-08T03:54:23+00:00

    Thank you Carl. Worked for me as well.

    JimJ.

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