Solution to ‘Windows Update cannot currently check for updates, because the service is not running. You may need to restart your computer’. Dec 2017

Anonymous

I have seen many people experiencing the problem of ‘Windows Update cannot currently check for updates, because the service is not running. You may need to restart your computer’.

Today, 11th Dec 2017, I have had exactly the same problem with going in to Windows Update on Win 7 PC’s and getting this same scenario when I try to update windows. I go in to Control Panel and Windows Update. There is a red X in the box and when I click ‘Check for Updates’ I get the message

‘Windows Update cannot currently check for updates, because the service is not running. You may need to restart your computer’.

I restarted the PC and still had the same the same problem and I also checked the Update Service was running and it was.

I have One laptop and 4 PC’s at home all running Win 7 so I tried the same procedure of updating and all but one had the same issue as above. I contacted a few friends whom I know have PC’s running Win 7 and when I asked them to try updating Windows they had the same problem I had. The settings in Windows Update varied from ‘Download updates but let me choose when to install them’ , ‘Install updates automatically ( recommended)’, ‘Never check for updates ( not recommended)’ . Ironically, the only PC I found I could check for updates was the one set to ‘Never check for updates ( not recommended)’. So we changed the settings on all the PC’s to‘Never check for updates ( not recommended)’ and then rebooted & then tried to check for updates and we could in all instances.** We then changed the settings back to our preference of either *‘Install updates automatically ( recommended)’*or ‘Download updates but let me choose when to install them’ and all is well again. So, it looks as though there has been a common problem with a previous Windows 7 Update that caused this update problem recently.

Can anyone from Microsoft please look in to this as there may be many people thinking their PC's are being updated and they aren't!

Since posting this a year ago it's obvious from the responses that the above fix doesn't work for everyone but it's certainly worth giving the above solution a shot as it's so simple, if it doesn't then follow one of the other solutions mentioned further on in the discussion. Once you have the updates working again the problem does not reoccur so obviously Microsoft fixed the problem in a subsequent update. I also notice that one year on and some people are still only just discovering Windows has not been updating all this time, so guess it pays to check updates are being installed occasionally!

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223 answers

Anonymous

2018-01-12T19:09:20+00:00

FWIW, below are is the Friday 01-12-2017 report from running the advanced version of the CheckSURLog.cab

‘WindowsUpdate.diagcab’ fix-it file.

Windows Update Publisher details

Issues found Service registration is missing or corrupt Fixed

Reset service registration Completed

Problems installing recent updates Fixed

Repair Windows Update Completed

Potential issues that were checked

Windows Update environment variables are incorrect Issue not present

Some security settings are missing or have been changed Issue not present

Check for missing or corrupt files Issue not present

Windows Update error None Issue not present

Windows Update services are not running Issue not present

Cryptographic service components are not registered Issue not present

Issues found Detection details

6 Service registration is missing or corrupt Fixed

Reset service registration Completed

6 Problems installing recent updates Fixed

Repair Windows Update Completed

Repair Windows Update services and dependencies

Potential issues that were checked Detection details

Windows Update environment variables are incorrect Issue not present

Some security settings are missing or have been changed Issue not present

Check for missing or corrupt files Issue not present

Windows Update error None Issue not present

Windows Update services are not running Issue not present

Cryptographic service components are not registered Issue not present

Detection details

Collected File

File Name: CheckSURLog.cab

Collection information

Computer Name: HLW-VAIO

Windows Version: 6.1

Architecture: amd64

Time: Friday, January 12, 2018 12:48:28 PM

Publisher details

Background Intelligent Transfer Service

Find and fix problems that may prevent background downloads from working

Package Version: 1.2.1.20140627

Publisher: Microsoft Corporation

Windows Update

Find and fix problems with Windows Update

Package Version: 8.1.1.20160515

Publisher: Microsoft Corporation

Windows Update

Find and fix problems with Windows Update

Package Version: 8.1.1.20160515

Publisher: Microsoft Corporation

However, windows updater still not working.

Regards, Gramps33
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Anonymous

2018-01-13T16:48:37+00:00

I would try a 'System Restore' next if I was you.
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Anonymous

2018-01-13T22:09:18+00:00

Amazing, but indeed, the "Never check for updates (not recommended)" solution works!
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Anonymous

2018-01-15T19:31:30+00:00

Hi Sverre

There seem to be many different solutions to this problem, as I mentioned earlier, the one that worked for me was the following:

Control Panel/Windows Update/Change Settings and in the dropdown box ‘Important updates’ choose ‘Never check for updates’ then click ‘OK’ and hopefully the Windows update box now has the option ‘Check for updates’. Click this and it should start looking for updates. Let it do it’s thing and once updates are found, install these and all should be well!

Now, if this doesn’t work, try this link https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/2714434/description-of-the-windows-update-troubleshooter (This takes you to the page where you can run the ‘WindowsUpdate.diagcab’ fix-it file). Just click on ‘Fix it’ and choose ‘Open’ and this opens a dialogue box. Click ‘Next’ . Let it run and then once complete, reboot and see if this resolves the problem. I’m not saying this will solve the problem, but it’s worth a try as it does work for some, it was the only thing that worked for a friend of mine, he was running Win 7 64bit Ultimate as well. Good luck.

One other thing -- after choosing "Never check for updates" and clicking "OK', restart your computer.
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Anonymous

2018-01-20T10:05:24+00:00

My solution to a lot of problems with Windows Update is the following batch script. It deletes the wu folder SoftwareDistribution which seems to be the root cause to a lot of wu problems.

****************************************************************

@Echo Off

If [%1]==[-d] Echo On

If [%1]==[-d] Set Quiet=

If [%1]==[] Set Quiet=/Q

Echo Stopping wuauserv...

net stop wuauserv

If [%1]==[-d] Pause

Echo Deleting %SystemRoot%\SoftwareDistribution...

If exist %SystemRoot%\SDist rd /S %Quiet% %SystemRoot%\SDist

move /Y %SystemRoot%\SoftwareDistribution %SystemRoot%\SDist

Echo Starting wuauserv...

net start wuauserv

If exist %SystemRoot%\SDist rd /S %Quiet% %SystemRoot%\SDist&&Echo Deleting %SystemRoot%\SDist

If Not exist %SystemRoot%\SDist Echo Successfully deleted %SystemRoot%\SDist

If exist %SystemRoot%\SDist Echo Failed to delete %SystemRoot%\SDist

Pause

****************************************************************

I hope it can come to some use.
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