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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!
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
You could also try this Microsoft Hotfix KB947821 Microsoft's description of the hotfix:
*'*This tool is being offered because an inconsistency was found in the Windows servicing store which may prevent the successful installation of future updates, service packs, and software.'
The file is available for download here https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=3132
Good to hear it worked Larry, as you say, such a simple fix, appears it doesn't work for everyone though. No, I can't see Microsoft being too concerned about this as they are very keen to wean everyone off Win 7 on to Win 10. I suppose their argument for their lack of concern for Win 7 users would be that we were all given the opportunity to move to Win 10 without cost initially. Personally, I still prefer Win 7 to Win 10 and will be sorry to see it go, but go it will! The windows 7 update facility has had a few issues since the introduction of Win10, the first being a problem when trying to do a clean install of Win 7. It would go on a continuous loop of trying to update but never getting there. A precise procedure was necessary to overcome this. That was soon after Win 10 was released. There were no further problems until this recent one, which is more serious because it actually leaves those affected - who have their updates settings as 'Automatically download and install' - unaware windows is not updating! Their only indication would be if they were curious as to why they hadn't seen, for some time, any notification on their PC that windows was installing critical updates!
A couple of other interesting points below:
This worked for me - thanks!
Use MICROSOFT WINDOWS UPDATE TROUBLE SHOOTER. This is found in Microsoft Support/Windows 7. The link I arrived at is: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/10164/fix-windows-update-errors
It didn’t work that simple for me. I had 2 downloads to do, one of which was the malicious software tool. First I downloaded and installed both, but the malicious software failed. Rebooted computer, tried again, this time malicious tool failed again but the other was canceled. Rebooted computer, this time downloaded only malicious software and this time it installed fine, then did the other one which installed as well. And I’m back to normal now. So it seems you need to download the malicious software tool alone first, and then the rest. Nice too be back to normal. Thank you guys !
