Windows 2016 Services displays wuauserv instead of "Windows Update"

Question

Soon after upgrading a Windows 2012 server vm to 2016, Windows services literally shows wuauserv instead of Windows Update in the list of services.

The service will load, but it seems kind of odd. Can I safely change the DisplayName value under HKLM\CurrentControlSet\Services\wuauserv in the registry?

I'm also having trouble getting SCCM client to reinstall, so maybe related but too early to say. The server is in a domain and gets no errors from gpupdate. Working my way through the sccm problem, so may post again about that.

Answer 1

An in-place upgrade is never recommended. This is likely a side effect. You could try editing the registy DisplayName but one has to wonder what else is broken? Should look like this

--please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--

Answer 2

I changed the service name with the sc config command. Also managed to get SCCM working, so I'm all set. If I see other problems, I'll consider a fresh installation. Tx.

Answer 3

I appreciate the responses, but as I wrote yesterday, I fixed the display name using the sc config command. Specifically:

sc config wuauserv DisplayName= "Windows Update"

DSPatrick, notice that the example you posted has an even wierder display name than what I had. You might want to fix that. :-D

Thanks, all.

Answer 4

This thread is becoming surreal. SC config is not some antiquated or deprecated function.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/sc-config

As I have explicitly stated twice, it worked as intended.

This is my last post on the subject.