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
    2018-12-06T14:24:05+00:00

    Worked for me

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-10-04T14:25:21+00:00

    I resolved this issue by performing the following steps:

    1. Changed the date/time to before 12/3/2017; restarted the Windows Update service (I checked for updates and received error 80072f8f - indicating a time and date error).
    2. Changed the date/time back to the current date and time. Restarted Windows Update service. 

    A manual check for Windows updates succeeded at this point.

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-09-07T18:41:26+00:00

    Please try the following...

    1 - Stop the Windows update service

    2 - go to c:\windows\SoftwareDistribution

    3 - delete the entire content

    4 - start Windows update service

    5 - Check updates

    It will take some time to run but it should run now.

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-02-19T01:55:19+00:00

    I discovered I had this same issue today. Quickly fixed by following your suggestion to change to Never Check for updates option. I prefer to check and install updates myself, so this has no detrimental affects for me.

    Thanks for posting your issue and fixes.

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  5. Anonymous
    2017-12-17T10:14:02+00:00

    I still am unable to change settings of day and time although all other check (tick) boxes are changeable. The Run script options given to me by Shawn 'Cmdr' Keene did solve my update problem (note; it did wipe clean all update history though).

    Because this problem cannot be cured by further updates the script solution should be made available to more people by statement and access to script by Microsoft.  As stated previously I am no techy but combined with help from youself and the community I have cured the major concern of my problem. I can only wait for further developments or at least an update to correct settings problem.

    Regards Rob

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