Windows Update Error services not running

I read today that Windows Update would not work with the beta version of Internet Explorer 8. I did want to check it out for myself before writing about it and went to the Windows Update website which greeted me with the error message “The site cannot continue because one or more of these Windows services is not running”, Error number: 0×8DDD0018. The services mentioned were Automatic Updates, Event Log and Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS).

I started services.msc and set all three services to manual to be able to start them afterwards. I refreshed the Windows Update website but received the same error message that one or more of the services were not running. I double checked and all three were running.

After reading the error description more carefully I discovered that it was not sufficient to just have the service running. No, it was necessary that two of the services, Automatic Updates and Background Intelligent Transfer Service, had to be set to automatic.

Once I did that the error message went away and I was able to update Windows XP using Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1. Yes, that did work which is why I’m writing this article instead. If you run into troubles with services and Windows Updates make sure the two services I mentioned are set to Automatic.