🐛 Bug: Permanently Breaks Windows Update

[Alex9001]

Description

Fresh Win11 install. Disabled updates using the .bat. When I went to enable them a few weeks later I get this:

Yes I turned it on and off again. And I tried sfc /scannow. And I did manage update services in section 5.

Steps To Reproduce

Version

1.5.0

OS / Distro

10.0.26100

Priority

Normal

Logs

No response

Referenced Issues

Screenshots

No response

[Aetherinox]

When you run the re-enable, can you paste here all the logs it outputs?

I just spun up a Win11 Pro VM and tried a disable/enabled and it popped right up. So I'm wondering if there's a service or something it thinks it turned back on, but didn't. Because really all the enable/disable does is just remove cached files, which wouldn't break it, and then turns off windows services responsible for checking for updates. And then registry tweaks to extend the update time for good measure.

Pop into your Windows services GUI, and see what status these are at:

set "servicesUpdates[uhssvc]=Microsoft Update Health Service|uhssvc"
set "servicesUpdates[UsoSvc]=Update Orchestrator Service|UsoSvc"
set "servicesUpdates[WaaSMedicSvc]=Windows Update Medic Service|WaaSMedicSvc"
set "servicesUpdates[wuauserv]=Windows Update Service|WaaSMedicSvc"

                               ^ Human Readable Name ^ | ^ service ^

The run command should be

Then go down the list and see if they're willing to be manually started:

And the services are stopped/started based on the current signed in user's permissions to services. I haven't looked at local account out of box service permissions, but they "should" have it to re-enable.

[Alex9001]

I find in services.msc:

Microsoft Update Health: does not exist Update Orchestrator: Running Windows Update Medic Service: does not exist Windows Update: Running

I went to cmd and did:

Still no difference

[Aetherinox]

Yeah Uhssvc is fine, on older versions of Windows that service was utilized for updates however it is slowly being phased out as a merged service. I'll add a check in there just to throw a message to the user.

Have you downloaded the unpause registry script and tried activating that?

Because at present, I ran the script on my main workstation to pause / unpause updates, and it worked as well. I also don't have \uhssvc since I'm on latest.

Try the unpause.reg batch script just for extra measure. Unfortunately it's hard to diagnose from here because it could be any number of things. Like I said, my script just shuts the services down. However, if the machine is detecting issues, it'll halt services from being turned back on, and usually you can pick up on that by viewing the Windows Event Log. It's usually pretty good about listing every issue.

Without some type of error to point in the direction, I can throw things against the wall all day and possibly not hit on why yours as gone haywire.

This one especially needs to be running (with admin priv)

sc config wuauserv start= auto
net start wuauserv

Once I get to my other workstation tonight, I'll go through the update process and see if I can come up with something.

Oh and also, you probably have, but when you use the batch or reg files to enable/disable Windows Updates, ensure you close the Windows Updates window and open a new one fresh, the GUI does not automatically refresh.

---

Edit So I downloaded the tool real quick on another workstation. The error your getting appears when UsoSvc is not running or there's an issue with it.

The interface doesn't care about the other services.

sc config UsoSvc start= auto
net start UsoSvc

As soon as I kill that service, same error pops up. And none of the registry tweaks do it either. They just make the date go way into the future.

[Alex9001]

I understand. I have done my share of windows troubleshooting. Often easier to make a new machine.

If you would like to find out why, I can clone the VM, remove personal info, and send you an .OVA that would run in virtualbox. Or a much smaller .XVA if you happen to have a xcp-ng/xen server.

IIRC, this machine is fresh Win10 vm, upgraded to Win11, then windows updates installed, Xen Server VM tools installed, a proprietary plumbing software installed, smb1 enabled, then I run this tool.

[Aetherinox]

Check my message, I just updated it.

Yeah, if you can create virtual image without your info, that I can look into.

I have VirtualBox, VMWare, and Hyper-v

[Alex9001]

UsoSvc was already running, i did stop and start, same thing. can't reboot the machine right now to see if that would make a difference.

In a few days, or a week, I'll send you that image via google drive.

What's a good way send that link without posting it publicly?

[Aetherinox]

You can throw the link at the email address ********[at]*******.****

Let me know when you copy that, so I can remove it. Don't need bots sending me crap.