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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.
I found a work around on a forum
mine didn't find any updates.
Works! Updating now. Thanks!!!
Turned off checking for updates. Now its identified the updates and downloading.
Hi Rob
Glad you got a fix for your problem. The problem I had was obviously different to yours – i.e my update options were not greyed out , just unable to update - but while I was experimenting I found something very interesting. I have my operating system and programs on a solid state drive (C:) and all my data on a separate conventional drive and keep a clone of the C drive so that if there are big problems I can drop in the clone and it’s not too out of date regarding updates. I found I had a clone dated April 2017 so tried that today and it had exactly the same problem I had recently regarding not updating. I thought that rather strange because I hadn’t experienced this problem until Nov 2017, in other words, it doesn't appear to be a particular update that caused the problem. That leaves me very puzzled!! It’s as though the problem was created as soon as it booted. I was connected to the internet at the time but when I checked the updates installed, the last one was in April. Can’t get my head around this one!! I was able to put this problem right by following my earlier procedure of changing the update option to ‘Never check for updates’. So, I’m none the wiser as to what is creating this problem in the first instance. Whether Microsoft can throw any light on this I don’t know, but would be interested to hear! For people who have their update settings as ‘Install updates automatically’, they will not be aware updates are not working, as you get no indication of this problem until you come to update manually!
Windows Update Cannot Currently Check for Updates Because the Service is Not Running
Solution:
The following article solved my problem easily. I used Solution 2:
https://www.wintips.org/windows-update-cannot-check-for-updates-windows-8-7-or-vista-solved/
Step 1: Stop Windows Update service.
To do this:
a. Simultaneously press Windows key + R to open run command box.
b. Inside run command box, type: services.msc and press Enter.
c. 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.
Step 3: Start Windows Update service.
a. Go to Windows services and “Start”the Windows Update service.
b. Try to update Windows again.
