Windows Update Stuck on “Checking for the latest updates for your computer…”

On occasion I run across a computer where Windows Update is stuck on “Checking for the latest updates for your computer…”.“ “  One of the following suggestions has always fixed the problem for me.

1) Clearing Temporary Internet files in Internet Explorer:

In internet Explorer, go to: Tools>Internet Options>General
Under “Browsing History”, press the “Delete” button.
Uncheck “Preserve Favorites website data” if it exists, and check “Temporary Internet Files”.
Press the “Delete” button, and once it has deleted all temporary files, reboot and try Windows Update again.

2)Check that the Background Intelligent Transfer Service to is set to Automatic and verify the Status is Started.

Click Start, Choose Run, and in the Run box, type services.msc, Click OK
Locate the Background Intelligent Transfer Service service, and right-click to select it.
Select Properties, and in the Startup Type list, select Automatic. Verify the service
Status is Started. Click OK.

3). Check that the Set Event Log service is set to Automatic and verify that the Status is
Started

Click Start, Choose Run, and in the Run box, type services.msc, Click OK.
Locate the Event Log service, and right-click to select it.
Select Properties., and in the Startup type list, select Automatic. Verify the Service
status is Started. Click OK.

4)“  Register qmgr.dll and qmgrprxy.dll

Click Start, Choose Run and in the Run box, type regsvr32 qmgr.dll, Click OK.
Click Start, Choose Run and in the Run box, type regsvr32 qmgrprxy.dll, Click OK.

5) It is possible that the contents of the SoftwareDistribution folder have become corrupted,
so try Renaming the SoftwareDistribution folder

Click Start, Choose Run.
In the Run box, type services.msc.
Click OK.
Right-click the Automatic Updates service.
Click Stop.
Stopping the service will take a moment.

Rename the “SoftwareDistribution” folder:
a. Click Start, click Run, type: %systemroot%
Click OK.
b. Right-click the SoftwareDistribution folder, and then click Rename.
c. Type SoftwareDistribution.old, and then press ENTER to rename this folder.

Click Start. Choose Run.
In the Run box, type services.msc.
Click OK.
Right-click the Automatic Updates service.
Click Start.
Starting the service will take a moment.

Please note that your update history is contained in the “datastore” folder and when you
rename the Software Distribution folder, the history is lost but it’s not important. You
can if need be, copy the contents back from the renamed softwareDistribution.old folder.
Losing the history of Windows Updates is not important.