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I have Windows 11 installed on a mini PC that has not been used for several months so I know that it is behind on Windows 11 updates. However the Windows Update tool in Settings is showing that it is up to date and when I click the Check for Updates button, it almost immediately responds that there are no updates.

Nor is Windows 11 automatically updating itself.

Note re the suggested post

The difference between this question and the suggested post is that Windows Update just isn't doing anything. It is not slow, it is not hung, it is not even showing that there are updates available when there clearly must be since Microsoft issues Widows updates periodically during the year and this PC has been turned off for at least 6 months and probably a year.

What I found was the Windows Update service itself was disabled for some reason and when I enabled it, Windows Update then worked properly by taking some time to communicate with the updates server, pulling down updates, installing updates, etc. None of this activity was happening until I enabled the Windows Update service.

What can I do to force Windows 11 to actually do an Check for Updates?

Richard Chambers
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    Does this answer your question? Windows Update stuck on Checking for updates – harrymc Jan 27 '24 at 13:59
  • Another possibility for failure to update is your version of Windows has been EOLed (Win 11 21H2 EOLed Oct. 23). If the W11 21h2 installation was forced on an underconfigured machine, it was getting security, but not feature updates. Win 23h2 can still be installed on these underconfigured machines, but not used for an update. – ubfan1 Jan 27 '24 at 19:09
  • @harrymc No, the suggested post does not answer my question. If you look at the answer I posted, none of the suggested actions answer my problem. – Richard Chambers Jan 31 '24 at 18:41

1 Answers1

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I found this Microsoft Community Question with a response for how to start update working again.

Im unable to install new updates on Windows 11

which mentioned this procedure:

Rename the software distribution folders as instructed below:

  1. Open Start and type cmd, right-click on "Command Prompt", and select "Run as administrator".
  2. Run the following commands at the Command Prompt one at a time:

net stop bits

net stop wuauserv

net stop cryptsvc

ren %systemroot%\softwaredistribution softwaredistribution.bak

ren %systemroot%\system32\catroot2 catroot2.bak

net start bits

net start wuauserv

net start cryptsvc

However when I tried using the command "net stop wuauserv" I received an error message indicating the service was not running. When I then tried to start the service with the command "net start wuauserv", the command failed with a message indicating that a dependency or needed device or service was not available.

I then opened the Services app to see the list of services and found that "Windows update" service was marked as "disabled". When I did a right mouse click on the "Windows update" service to start it, the various options to start, stop, pause, etc. were grayed out.

I then looked at the Properties for the service and changed the Startup type to Manual.

screenshot of Properties dialog of Services app for Windows update service

After this I opened up the Settings dialog and then navigated to the Windows Update panel and Windows 11 had started update properly.

So the root problem was that Windows Update service was disabled and had to be turned on.

Richard Chambers
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