First attempt using MiKTeX fails

I am new to MikTex, but have some experience with Latex.

Installed Miktex for windows from here https://miktex.org/download. Selected all default installation options.

On starting TeXWorks, selected "New from template…", selected "Basic Article" (make no change to template)

Press Typeset(green play button). Get an error dialog: "invalid stoi argument".

Looks like a package problem as next dialog is "required file could not be found: geometry.sty"

The "package will be installed for:" drop down is empty. Seems suspicious

Click install in package dialog, invited to select a package source, I did so (tried a few different repos). Another odd thing, the package information dialog does not remember which source I selected on the previous attempt. But I can click "Change" and select a source.

Then get: "Sorry, but "MiKTeX Compiler Driver" did not succeed." in console.

Here is the log output

2021-02-02 16:55:39,055Z INFO  miktex-pdftex - this process (3464) started by 'miktex-texworks' with command line: C:UsersXXXXXXXAppDataLocalProgramsMiKTeXmiktexbinx64miktex-pdftex.exe -synctex=1 -undump=pdflatex untitled-2.tex
2021-02-02 16:55:39,063Z WARN  miktex-pdftex - security risk: running with elevated privileges
2021-02-02 16:55:39,071Z INFO  miktex-pdftex - allowing known shell commands
2021-02-02 16:55:46,194Z INFO  miktex-pdftex.packagemanager - going to download https://api2.miktex.org/repositories?&releaseState=Stable
2021-02-02 16:55:49,386Z INFO  miktex-pdftex - installing package geometry triggered by tex/latex/geometrygeometry.sty
2021-02-02 16:55:49,403Z INFO  miktex-pdftex.packagemanager - going to download https://api2.miktex.org/repositories/db90da458ceeb4a0f389b9d21de4aa96
2021-02-02 16:55:49,619Z INFO  miktex-pdftex - mpm: starting package maintenance...
2021-02-02 16:55:49,619Z INFO  miktex-pdftex - mpm: installation directory: C:UsersXXXXXXXAppDataLocalProgramsMiKTeX
2021-02-02 16:55:49,619Z INFO  miktex-pdftex - mpm: package repository: ftp://mirror.kumi.systems/ctan/systems/win32/miktex/tm/packages/
2021-02-02 16:55:49,622Z FATAL miktex-pdftex - invalid stoi argument
2021-02-02 16:55:49,622Z INFO  miktex-pdftex - this process (3464) finishes with exit code 1

What am I missing?