Unable to Open or Update Version of NI Update Service

Issue Details

• I am prompted to update my version of NI Update Service, but the downloaded update will not run and I receive an error indicating that I cannot install the update.  The error says "An error has occurred installing an update. If this error continues, contact National Instruments technical support or visit ni.com/support." Why is this error occurring? 

• When using NI Update Service I get an error message saying "This user account does not have privileges to install software on this machine." Why is this error occurring?
• When I try to open NI Update Service, I get an Application Error stating "An error had occurred and NI Update Service must exit.":

• When I try to open NI Update Service, I get a Microsoft .NET Framework error:

Solution

If you are running Microsoft Windows Vista or higher, you must run NI Update Service as an administrator.  Windows defines an administrator account as "a user account that lets you make changes that will affect other users." Installing new versions of NI software falls under this category.

Complete the following steps to elevate NI Update Service to run as an administrator: 
1.  Close NI Update Service.
2.  Run NI Update Service as an administrator: 
   a. Navigate to NI Update Service from Start»All Programs»National Instruments»NI Update Service.
   b. Right-click NI Update Service 
   c. Select Run as administrator  NI Update Service should now run as expected.  It will download and install available updates.

If you are still receiving errors, manually uninstall the Update Service via NI Package Manager. Then re-download Update Service from ni.com. Verify that your current and target versions of the software are compatible with your operating system, as errors often come from incompatible versions of operating systems and software.

If these steps do not work, please try the steps listed in Knowledge Base 5C8FQ2CZ: NI Update Service Freezes When Checking for New Version. This Knowledge Base article discusses the situation where the NI Update Service appears to pause on the "Checking for new versions" state.

Additional Information

You can set the program to always run as administrator by completing the following steps: 
1.  Close NI Update Service. 
2.  Navigate to NI Update Service from Start » All Programs » National Instruments » NI Update Service. 
3. Right-click NI Update Service 
4. Select Properties from the menu displayed above. 
5. Navigate to the Compatibility tab.  
6. Select Run this program as an administrator under the Privilege Level.