Helping a friend install FORD IDS software v124 on ancient laptop, it displayed “Waiting for Windows Network Services” (saying it could take 20 minutes).
If you hit “abort” it lists the services it is waiting for.
In this case the “DNS Client” service, and the “TDSclient” service were disabled in Windows.
All you need to do is start these services AND set then to start automatically.
Most versions of Windows you can just click the “start” or other button and type “services” in the search and it will offer the appropriate admin box if you have permissions.
A more detailed explanation of how to update the DNS Client service can be found online, the other service(s) can be done the same way.
I repeat “start” the service, and set it to “start automatically”. Otherwise it won’t work after the next restart of Windows and you’ll have to do it every time.
Starting services on Windows does mean more software is running and vulnerable to being hacked, so you might need help from IT if your devices are locked down. In this case it was an laptop which is usually used for vehicle diagnostics and other local hardware troubleshooting, so probably not a big increase in risk.
This post is “obvious” to anyone use to Windows, but a quick search suggests a few car mechanics have struggled here. Seems reasonable, I struggle with basic car mechanics at times, most complex thing I’ve done on my own is replace a Windscreen wiper motor, no reason they should need to know Windows. Unclear to me why the Ford software expects DNS Client service to be running, I’ve never seen any software care how DNS works before, only that it does work.