No svchost running at all

Cruncher665 said:

Yesterday, I installed Foxit Reader, then decided I didn't like it. When I attempted to re-install, I received the error message that "the windows installer service could not be accessed." It was listed as running in the services applet of administrator tools, but would not work.

While then exploring the system, I found other things that wouldn't work--for example, audio, which is what put me on to the same problem last May--and others. I got many "class not registered" errors. SFC won't run. When booting to the CD and running SFC, I got the old message about a pending repair, although I can find no trace of one. Ran malware scanners, of course, and the system came clean. Clean boot was not useful.

The most significant thing I have found, which is probably at the root of this, is that in task manager, there are no instances of svchost running, unlike the usual ten or fifteen that normally run.

I had this problem in May, and ended up doing a complete re-install of Windows 7 Home Premium. I would like to avoid going through that again. It's difficult with visual impairment.

There is one potential similarity to now and the situaton in May, other than the symptoms described above. In May, I had tried installing a new nvidia card, which Windows wouldn't recognize, so I took it out and when I booted back to Windows, the above symptoms appeared. Yesterday, I saw in event viewer a dcom error, which traces back to the nvidia updatus "user."

Thoughts?

Welcome to SevenForums Cruncher,

Run the Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper over your system.

PUT SYSTEM SWEEPER ON A USB STICK
System Sweeper, https://connect.microsoft.com/systemsweeper, allows you to start an infected PC and perform an offline scan to identify and remove viruses, rootkits and other advanced malware. System Sweeper is a free standalone, bootable malware and virus remover from Microsoft.

NOTE: A fine tutorial on the System Sweeper is:
How to use the Microsoft Standalone System Sweeper


Download System Sweeper (about 576 kB):
https://connect.microsoft.com/systemsweeper

Insert 256 MB or larger USB stick into a usb port.

Run the downloaded program--mssstool64.exe or mssstool32.exe

Choose the option to install to USB.
Caution: The install program will format the usb stick.

The install program will download about 200 mB more.

After the install is finished, leave the stick in the usb slot.

Run the program you downloaded once again.

This 2nd run, and any subsequent runs, will download the very latest anti-virus definitions (about 60 mB).

To keep System Sweeper up-to-date, simply reinsert the usb stick and run the installation program, mssstool64.exe or mssstool32.exe, again.

The initial, full scan by System Sweeper can easily take several hours, but subsequent quick scans will be shorter.

Remember, your computer is being very thoroughly checked for all types of malware.

The results of System Sweeper will be in:
\Windows\Standalone System Sweeper\Support as one or more files with a LOG extension which can be viewed with Notepad.

Cruncher,

Please attach the log files to your next post.
The results of System Sweeper will be in:
\Windows\Standalone System Sweeper\Support as one or more files with a LOG extension.

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Do me a favor and make sure that in the list of installed programs, there is NOT something to the effect of NVidia Update. If there is, then uninstall it.