Hello this is very strange.
Some of our customers fail to install IE10 and I found out it is because the Windows Update service is not there at all (in services.msc).
Microsoft fix-it for Windows Update does not find any problems (which is funny). Any ideas?
Win 7 64-bit
Best Answer
I encountered this problem and solved it by re-adding the Windows Update service via the Registry.
Create missing services in Registry
From a cache of default Registry keys for various versions of Windows, I added the services
bits
andwuauserv
.This re-added the Windows Update service to the Services list (
services.msc
), but I had to take an additional step, because even though the Services list (andnet start wuauserv
) reported the Windows Update service as running, the Windows Update Settings panel gave me this error when I tried to check for updates.Clear Windows Update cache
A troubleshooting site suggested that this error may have resulted from corruption in a previous Windows Update download. So, following that site's guide, I stopped the Windows Update service (
net stop wuauserv
), then deleted all of the contents from theSoftwareDistribution
folder in theWindows
folder (typicallyC:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution
), which required Administrator elevation. After I deleted the files, I re-started the Windows Update service (net start wuauserv
), and could successfully retrieve updates via the Windows Update service again!