Can't set restore points; Can't install .NET 4 updates

rcdunbar said:

SevenForums was recommended through my computer club (Phila Area Computer Society); I hope you can help me solve two, possibly inter-related problems in my Windows 7 system. These problems did not exists for the PC's first few years.

1 I am unable to create a restore point, or revert to a previous restore point, or configure restore settings. In the System Properties window, System Protection tab the System Restore, Configure, and Create buttons are always disabled (grayed out), and no drives are listed under "Available Drives", only the word Searching... . Consequently updates and other actions that normally create a restore points first either fail or never get going.

2 Win7 is unable to install a group of a dozen .NET 4 updates. It has tried and failed many times in recent months. Other Windows updates install without incident. And now I can't update or even open Visual Studio 2010 Pro: it fails with the message "Exception is thrown by the target of an invocation". But I frequently get pop-up notices from Visual Studio that an application file has experienced an unhandled exception. It's always the same 5 or 6 non-Windows files (I always chose not to trouble-shoot); but those applications don't always fail as a result.

Otherwise, my home-built (4 years ago) PC, with Win7 Pro and a variety of Microsoft and 3rd party apps work well. The PC has 4GB of RAM, a 3GHz Intel dual core CPU, and plenty of free space on C:\ and the three other hard drive partitions. Internet access via Verizon FiOS works very well (and very fast), protected by Norton Internet Security. My default browser is FireFox, but I also use IE9. Both work OK. Here's what I have tried so far, to no avail:

Ran MalwareBytes on C:\ and the other 3 active partitions; it found nothing.
Ran Sophos Virus Removal tool, which supposedly looks for rootkits; it says "your system is clean".
Ran System File Checker (from the command prompt): according to the log it found and fixed a number of corrupted files, mostly, it seemed, in Internet Explorer.
Ran the Windows Fixit Tool, and verified that the Volume Shadow Copy service had started.
Ran the System Readiness Tool for 32-bit Win7 (System Update Readiness Tool fixes Windows Update errors in Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2008 ). Both CheckSUR logs, which were identical, reported no errors.

It sure seems like there's a faulty Registry entry and/or a corrupted file. Or could this be a permissions issue? Or a service that fails to start? I would appreciate any insight, advice, and words of wisdom.

Hi rcdunbar and welcome to Seven Forums.

Are you using sophos anti virus? Or what anti virus are you using?

Can you try running this please?
Download



Don't delete anything yet just run it "Search" and post the text file here please Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Seven Forums

benjy206 said:

rcdunbar said:

SevenForums was recommended through my computer club (Phila Area Computer Society); I hope you can help me solve two, possibly inter-related problems in my Windows 7 system. These problems did not exists for the PC's first few years.

1 I am unable to create a restore point, or revert to a previous restore point, or configure restore settings. In the System Properties window, System Protection tab the System Restore, Configure, and Create buttons are always disabled (grayed out), and no drives are listed under "Available Drives", only the word Searching... . Consequently updates and other actions that normally create a restore points first either fail or never get going.

2 Win7 is unable to install a group of a dozen .NET 4 updates. It has tried and failed many times in recent months. Other Windows updates install without incident. And now I can't update or even open Visual Studio 2010 Pro: it fails with the message "Exception is thrown by the target of an invocation". But I frequently get pop-up notices from Visual Studio that an application file has experienced an unhandled exception. It's always the same 5 or 6 non-Windows files (I always chose not to trouble-shoot); but those applications don't always fail as a result.

Otherwise, my home-built (4 years ago) PC, with Win7 Pro and a variety of Microsoft and 3rd party apps work well. The PC has 4GB of RAM, a 3GHz Intel dual core CPU, and plenty of free space on C:\ and the three other hard drive partitions. Internet access via Verizon FiOS works very well (and very fast), protected by Norton Internet Security. My default browser is FireFox, but I also use IE9. Both work OK. Here's what I have tried so far, to no avail:

Ran MalwareBytes on C:\ and the other 3 active partitions; it found nothing.
Ran Sophos Virus Removal tool, which supposedly looks for rootkits; it says "your system is clean".
Ran System File Checker (from the command prompt): according to the log it found and fixed a number of corrupted files, mostly, it seemed, in Internet Explorer.
Ran the Windows Fixit Tool, and verified that the Volume Shadow Copy service had started.
Ran the System Readiness Tool for 32-bit Win7 (System Update Readiness Tool fixes Windows Update errors in Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 2008 ). Both CheckSUR logs, which were identical, reported no errors.

It sure seems like there's a faulty Registry entry and/or a corrupted file. Or could this be a permissions issue? Or a service that fails to start? I would appreciate any insight, advice, and words of wisdom.

Hi rcdunbar and welcome to Seven Forums.

Are you using sophos anti virus? Or what anti virus are you using?

Can you try running this please?
Download



Don't delete anything yet just run it "Search" and post the text file here please Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Seven Forums

Please see above for A/V!

mitchell65 said:

Please see above for A/V!

Thanks for that Missed that

Welcome to Seven Forums rcdunbar.

Give option three a try here: Windows Update - Reset
Try to install the .NET 4 updates one at a time.

This may help, run the steps outlined in this tutorial, Option Two, and reboot the system:
SFC /SCANNOW Command - System File Checker
If that doesn't correct the issue, run it two or more times with a reboot between.
You may get this result:

Code:

Windows Resource Protection found corrupt files and successfully repaired
them. Details are included in the CBS.Log windir\Logs\CBS\CBS.log. For
example C:\Windows\Logs\CBS\CBS.log
The system file repair changes will take effect after the next reboot.

Or a message that no integrity violations were found.
Or that Windows Resource Protection found errors it cannot repair, if so rerun the steps above.

You can go ahead and select the "Delete" option post back and let me know the results

Try the Reset Updates and Delete Update history first.