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
    2018-10-09T14:14:08+00:00

    Many thanks for your help on this. I only realised a short time ago that no updates had taken place and had the problems hitherto described. I couldn't even see when the last update took place. Anyway after a good while installing a pretty massive update I found that it had been a year ago since the last one so all is sweet again..  for now now

    Cheers

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-10-13T07:15:30+00:00

    THANK YOU!

    I first run the troubleshooter you suggest and then I changed the settings and you guys said above here to never, and it is doing it finally.  But the troubleshooter was vital to make it happen.  Yes the link is this https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4027322/windows-update-troubleshooter

    THANK YOUU

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-10-14T19:11:02+00:00

    Yup. That's the issue. I didn't realize it wasn't actually checking until today when I tried updating my video card driver... I strongly suggest doing exactly this if you're having the same problem. Thank you, dandm2015. (Ten months of updates I wasn't getting and never realized it.)

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-10-14T20:29:57+00:00

    dandm2015: It works! I followed your suggestion and I succeeded  to download updates again.

    Thank you

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-10-16T16:46:43+00:00

    Thank you very much! Your solution worked for me! :)

    Windows Update Cannot Currently Check for Updates Because the Service is Not Running

    Solution:

    1. Go to Administrative Tools/Services, and stop the Windows Update service.
    2. Then go to the folder c: /Windows/SoftwareDistributionand delete all of the files and folders.
    3. Then go back to Servicesand restart the Windows Update service which will recreate all of those folders again.
    4. Then manually run the Update Service and everything should work.

    www.dell.com

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    20+ people found this answer helpful.
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