Check For Updates Windows 10 Not Working

[Zacharie Brodhacker]

Ichecked Windows Update and it has not been updating since March. When I tell Windows to check for updates, it acts like it is checking, but it seems to say that for hours. If I attempt to restart the windows update service, it seems to never be able to shut down. My only remedy seems to be rebooting to get back to the point where I can tell Windows Update to check for new updates.

To disable IE enhanced security in windows server 2012 R2, launch the Server Manager, on the left hand side click on Local Server. On the right hand side click on the On link next to IE Enhanced Security Configuration. You will now see the Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration box.

I've had been playing around with a 2012 VM and I had this issue. My solution (quick, insecure, etc etc) was to disable the IE Enhanced security on the server and it happily started talking to MS Windows Update. Not a solution for a real server, but it's a toy dev server and I'm ok with that.

I have recently have the same issues on my Server 2012 and all I did was disabled the Malwarebytes Service and updates downloaded right away. Try disabling any malware or anti-virus software you have because that could be the root caused.

We had this issue on some virtual servers migrated from a "cloud" provider back to our internal data center. The root cause was permissions to the %SystemRoot%\System32\catroot2 folder. There were a number of differences between the permissions on that folder on a healthy server vs those on the migrated server. I believe the key one was that TrustedInstaller didn't have full access.

I don't have any restore points and it is a genuine copy of Windows. It has been like this since I purchased my laptop. I have also ran Microsoft's basic troubleshooting tools and whilst it did say that some issues were fixed, nothing changed.

In my case, manually downloading and installing the "Windows Update Client" Update for Windows 8.1 (KB3138615) fixed the issue. All you need to do is download the update (see this answer if you don't know whether you are running 32-bit or 64-bit Windows), double click it to start the install, follow the instructions, and restart when prompted. After restarting, you can restart Windows Update Client and it should find the necessary updates after a few minutes.

None of the solutions proposed worked for me (and I did not want to use non Microsoft signed apps). After testing a lot of options, finally, the key was the point suggested by William Burgess: cut your internet connection before installing the manually downloaded updates. It looks like the manually downloaded updates are also stuck on "Checking for updates..." if the internet connection is available.

Delete %windir%\SoftwareDistribution (e.g. C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution): right click on the folder and Delete with administrator rights. To save space you may also delete the SoftwareDistribution.old or SoftwareDistribution.bak folders you can find.

I downloaded KB3173424-x64 and KB3172614-x64, then renamed folder C:\windows\softwaredistribution to softwareditribution.oldI disconnected internet connection (network cable) then installed the KB's in orderas listed above, Plugged back in the internet connection and started windows updatewhich ran about 3 mins before showing me I had 152 updates to install. This worked with no issue.

If any still have the problem of update windows 8.1 not showing the updates or keep searching for hours without any result. I checked this : -to-fix-windows-update-when-it-gets-stuck/ as i am on a laptop that had to do the factory install of windows 8 and did the upgrade to windows 8.1 and after finishing all. It shows the updates from year 2014 to the date of 15/5 and couldn't find any other updates through search manually,so used the url up to fix it. Hope this help whoever suffer from same issue as i did.

If running the troubleshooter didn't work, you can try a third party tool called "WSUS Offline Update". This tool will download available Windows Update packages from Microsoft and install them. Run it once, have it download those updates and install them, and Windows Update should work normally afterwards.

I kept coming back to this page, along with a few other pages online for the updates required to get Windows Update to work properly. So I created the update packs for both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows, all packed into the singular .ZIP files

The most advanced fixing tool I've seen suggested is the Reset Windows Update Agent tool (the current version is hosted at -tools/script-wureset). It combines functionality for all the fixing advice on this topic found in various places around the Net. There are 16 items in its menu (as of this writing), the key ones to try are:

Out-of-the-box Update Agent is known to get stuck in an infinite loop in some cases - among others, if Office 2007 and some updates for it are installed. The solution here is to update the update agent to the latest version manually. Here's where the tricky part starts as M$ doesn't officially maintain a list of the updates required for this.

I've experienced the problem where Windows 10 machines seem to be stuck on checking for updates, etc. when using the Settings Updates & Security and selecting Check for updates.

I've read various posts about usoclient and it being part of the Update Orchestrator Service process and having various system Task Scheduler tasks scheduled. I've not been able to find a lot about usoclient and it's command line options from Microsoft though unfortunately.

I'm guessing the issue is related to checking for updates during the Active Hours period and the GUI option "Check for updates" not allowing it to move forward with whatever it's stuck doing.

Additionally, a few years back I wrote about things you can try to resolve this for other Windows Operating systems on Downloading Windows Updates takes forever which is rather comprehensive and some of it may still apply to Windows 10.

Note: Attempting to run the Interactive mode if WU is configured to be solely non-Interactive, or on a non-Interactive server, shouldtrigger an error (something along the lines of "AU Can not performnon-interactive scan if AU is interactive-only").

The network driver may not be the most suited, so slowing down Windows Update.Windows Update itself may bring in a better driver, but it has to finish first.The solution might be to install the driver manually before doing Windows Update.

I'm running Firefox 68.9.0 ESR, and it keeps whining about an update being available. I don't care, because every time I update, one of the extensions I use every day is disabled without my permission. How do I get firefox to shut up about it once and for all? In other words, where is the "do not check for updates" command hidden, or, how else can I shut this thing up? I have, in the past, liked firefox, but it has, over the last few years, supported less and less of features I use daily, at a minimum, many times/day for most.

So how do I shut these annoying alerts about an update I have NO intention of installing off? "You can't" is not a valid answer. Nor is "just upgrade and lose half of the stuff (again) that you use all the time." Sorry if I sound angry, but these constant annoyances (and Thunderbird is doing the same---so same question for it here) are really getting on my nerves.

I have Firefox almost working the way it should. Still can't click in a bookmark toolbar bookmark and then click on "add bookmark here" like I could. That was one of those I used about 10--30 times per day, depending on what I was working on.

I have my extensions update automatically---they don't break things when they update, like Firefox and Thunderbird do. Now, if Firefox and Thunderbird were to list everything the next update would break, along with whatever positive changes it would make, I could better evaluate whether or not to do the update. Oh, and some updates, once done, don't let you go back to a previous version, so if the update fscks things up for you, you can't even go backwards to the previous version that worked (that would also need to be in that list of everything that the update would break). But they don't do that. So I stay with the version that works for me.

Or, in this case, almost works. I'm still waiting for the ability to create a bookmark in a bookmark folder on the bookmark toolbar directly (used to be called, "add bookmark here" and was an extension) to come back. That was great---have a bunch of tabs of gamedev stuff that I want to bookmark in my gamedev bookmarks toolbar folder (or a folder under that one, or a folder under a folder under that one, etc.)? Click on the gamedev folder (or whatever sub-folder, sub-sub-folder, etc.) and add the bookmark there in one step.One step (smart) then vs several steps (stupid) now. That's only one example, but it's my #1 example.

Thanks. I'll try the registry thing tomorrow. It's been about 20 years (Windows NT and 2000 at work only, at what was then 16th Special Operations Wing Intelligence---last I heard, back to Hurlburt's original 1SOW) since I've even touched an M$ box. This one is my game development (and by definition, also gaming) system, and for various reasons, I'm currently planning on keeping it running on Windows 10....but I don't want to be playing around in the registry editor at this time of night when I'm tired, grumpy because of this (and search engines that think cal and calendar are the same program on Unix---I'm trying to get calendar working in Cygwin...stupid search engines keep telling me about cal ... not even spelled the same!), etc.

Hopefully that fixes it. If not, not being able to disable updates (which, again, always break something that I use regularly) will be the last straw for any Mozilla products, forever. First it's extensions (and only the most extremely popular ones at that). Now it's removing the option to not update Firefox or Thunderbird on MY computer. M$ seems to think the same way: that they have any say over MY computer and can disable software like Godot 3 (game development system), or Cygwin, etc., "just 'cause"....and not let me fix it. Bye bye Windows Defender (aka Windows Offender). Hello Godot 3, nice to see you again. :-)

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