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
2017-12-11T20:19:37+00:00

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!

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Windows update

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-04-04T13:52:37+00:00

    I discovered a solution to the problem where trying to run Windows Update resulted in the pop-up message " *Windows Update cannot currently check for updates, because the service is not running. You may need to restart your computer"*on the WinTips website here.

    I followed the instructions from Solution #2 to resolve the error manually:

    Step 1: Stop Windows Update service.

    a. Simultaneously press Windows key + R  to open run command box.

    b. Inside run command box, type: services.msc and press Enter.

    c. In the Services window that just opened, search for Windows Update service, then right click on it and select Stop.

    d. Without closing the services window, proceed to the next step.

    Step 2: Delete or Rename Windows update temporary storage folder.

    To do this:

    a. Open “My Computer” and navigate to “C:Windows”folder**.**

    b. Delete (or Rename e.g. to “SoftwareDistributionOLD”) the “SoftwareDistribution” folder.

    (note:  I personally chose the option to rename the folder to SoftwareDistributionOLD, which seemed a far safer and easier to undo if this did not work!)

    Step 3: Start Windows Update service.

    a. In the Services window that you opened in Step 1, right click on the Windows Update service and select Start .

    b. Try to update Windows again.

    This solution worked for me, hopefully it will for you as well!

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-04-04T19:48:41+00:00

    Sure, because you want to have Microsoft determine when to nuke your Update History due to them causing Microsoft Update to stall.

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-04-06T01:18:40+00:00

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-04-14T09:59:44+00:00

    This works! Thank you Keyser_Soze. And EXCELLENT instructions. I am a Technical Writer of 15 years and appreciate how well you wrote this up.

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-04-21T17:25:37+00:00

    Thanks worked for me

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