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
    2018-01-12T19:09:20+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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  2. Anonymous
    2018-01-12T18:31:50+00:00

    I’ve tried all of the above solutions with no results. Something seems to have corrupted the following Icons in my control panel which are no longer working.  Because the Windows Update Icon is not working I am unable to access

    Control Panel/Windows Update/Change Settings

    1 Action center

    2 Location and Other sensors

    1. Performance Information and Tools

    4  Location and Other Sensors

    5 Speech recognition

    6.User Accounts

    1. Windows Update

    8 Credential Manager

    9 Personalization

    10 System

    11 Backup and restore

    12 Windows Firewall

    13 Ease of Access group

    14 Homegroup

    15 Notification area Icons

    16 RemoteApp and Desktop Connections

    16 parental Controls

    1. Trouble Shooting

    Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Gramps33

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-01-12T13:08:55+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.

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-01-12T11:21:46+00:00

    Could you please list the steps required to resolve this issue as I could not make it resolve this sticky problem on my win 7 64-bit ultimate laptop (HP Elitebook, core i7). However, for me it occurred during December/January - after the last updates were shipped (no config changes, have admin privileges).

    I entered services and enabled the two old .NET framworks that were disabled. Same problem.

    Any changes to other services required - e.g. .NET 4.0 service?

    You also mention

    1. Win update has a install/fix,its: windowsupdateagent-7.6-x86   

    Also,thier is: microsoftFixit.wu.MATSKB 

    Also,download & run

    malicious software removal tool,

    I also downloaded and ran: malicious software removal tool,

    which reported 25 infected files - during full scan. However, when completed, it reported 0 files - so the 25 files (temporary) - seemed to be false alarm...

    I downloaded the patch manually: windows6.1-kb4056897-x64_2af35062f69ce80c4cd6eef030eda31ca5c109ed.mcu

    • no problems/error

    Any help most welcome :)

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-01-09T22:58:08+00:00

    That also did the trick! Apparently, my computer was stuck since the beginning of December (last update). BTW, I can still update and install KB4056894 (Meltdown update). I thought Microsoft was supposed to remove it since it's creating so many BSOD and issues.

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