ID:278438
 
"Windows Update cannot currently check for updates, because the service is not running. You may need to restart your computer."

I have restarted my computer twice at least. Action center gives me the option to change the setting to "Install updates automatically (recommended)", however it continues to say that Windows Updater's setting isn't set to that.

I have google'd the error and people have come up with two reasons as why this is happening: 1) Virus/Hijackware or 2) Registry error. I ran Malware Bytes, Spybot, and even Microsoft Security Essentials and neither of them found anything that fixed the problem. Then I ran AVG and Avast! and again, neither of them found anything that fixed the problem. So now I'm thinking it's a registry error. If it is, then it was caused by one of the registry cleaning tools that someone in this community recommended: AML Free Registry Cleaner, Eusing Free Registry Cleaner, and CCleaner.

I did not have this problem before I downloaded and used those utility programs. If someone could please help me fix this error, I would be really grateful. Thank you.
Spunky_Girl wrote:
I have google'd the error and people have come up with two reasons as why this is happening: 1) Virus/Hijackware or 2) Registry error. I ran Malware Bytes, Spybot, and even Microsoft Security Essentials and neither of them found anything that fixed the problem. Then I ran AVG and Avast! and again, neither of them found anything that fixed the problem. So now I'm thinking it's a registry error. If it is, then it was caused by one of the registry cleaning tools that someone in this community recommended: AML Free Registry Cleaner, Eusing Free Registry Cleaner, and CCleaner.

Generally if you're finding yourself having to run 3 seperate registry cleaning tools, there's a problem.
In response to Murrawhip
Each one found a handful of things to "fix" or "delete" or whatever. I'm guessing one of them might have deleted the registry entry for Windows Update. But thanks for your "help" /sarcasm

EDIT
And as far as having three different ones... I had just downloaded them (in case you missed that bit in my OP) and was trying them out.
First check your running services. Type msconfig into the run line in the start menu and then click services on the box that pops up. Somewhere at the bottom of the list is the Windows Update service (make sure the hide Microsoft services box is not checked). If it is running (and still not working) or it is not there then you have a big problem. (Or you can ctrl-alt-del into the Task manager and go to services)

If it is there and it is not running then you have to go into
Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Services. Find Windows update in the list, right click on it, click properties. Then under startup type set it to automatic.

Do you have system restore setup? If so I would just do that, it would probably be easiest although it takes forever to run. Even if you can't get it back to a clean state maybe you could get it back to a workable state and go from there.

It could be a huge problem or it could just be simply you were cleaning up your system and you stopped it from running at startup without knowing what it was.
Most "Registry Cleaners" will create a backup of your registry before running. If this is truly a registry problem, recombining one of those backups with your registry should fix it. That said, I would suggest trying Asielen's suggestion first and seeing if you can restart the service.

However, Windows Update is such a basic service, it's unlikely any serious registry cleaner would make the mistake of breaking it. Are you running Windows 7, and if so, were said cleaners marked as compatible with Windows 7?
In response to Asielen
I went into msconfig and it labeled Windows Update has stopped, so I went into the Administrative tools. It was already set to "Automatic (Delayed Start)", so I set it to "Automatic". I had also noticed that there was a button to "Start" the service. I hit that button and I got an error message saying it couldn't find a file.
In response to Spunky_Girl
In response to Asielen
In the first link, I got to running 'regsvr32 /i mshtml' and it gave me "The module "mshtml" was loaded but the entry-point DllRegisterServer was not found. Make sure that "mshtml" is a valid DLL or OCX file and then try again." error

EDIT
Using the second link's utility program worked! :D Thank you!