Before deliberately attempting Windows Update, we are to install these three items, in this order:
- Servicing stack update for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1: September 20, 2016:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3177467 - July 2016 update rollup for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3172605 - September 2016 update rollup for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3185278
- In TASKMGR, terminate process wusa.exe
- Restart service wuauserv
- Try the install again.
After it's all done for all three, Windows Update then works. Am not sure how the above procedure might be applied to WSUSoffline, but given that WSUSoffline did not work due to the same problem, I thought I ought to report it. Reportedly this situation exists for both Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2.