Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Windows Update on Windows 7 after December 3rd 2017

Tried to run Windows Update on a Windows 7 system after December 3rd and got an error message that it can't check for updates because the service isn't running? Yep, me too. If you search for this, you'll find we're not alone; probably millions of folks got caught by a botched timestamp buried in a file on a compressed archive deep in the Windows file system.

What the web suggests and what worked for me: set your system clock back to before the expiration date (I used December 1st), run Windows Update (it downloads updates that include a fix for this), let it restart your system, then maybe try running it again (because more updates showed up for me and I had to restart again), and then you can change the date back to today. Windows Update works afterwards.


Why Windows 7? Some proprietary embedded tools I must use from time to time - mostly for talking to hardware devices - haven't made the jump yet to Windows 10, or even Windows 8. Also, it doesn't suck.