Noel, yesterday I did run the following instruction from your post in which you cited your analysis of my system's log files.

"Open an Elevated Command Prompt, and run the following commands...

msiexec /unreg
msiexec /regserver

Once complete, reboot TWICE (please leave at least 15 mins between boots) and then do a new Check for updates and attempt to install the oldest update found. "


The un-reg and re-reg actions occurred as intended, per the notices in the elevated CMD window. I rebooted, left the system running for nominally 15 minutes, then rebooted again. When I opted to run WU after the second reboot, WU's reaction was as I have described earlier: WU was "treated with suspicion" in a UAC sense, and when I elected to run the app anyway, an advisory appeared, saying that WU couldn't run because the Windows Update Service was not running. It was, in fact running, and even when I stopped and then restarted it (via Services.msc), WU continued to act the same.

I'll follow your (quoted) instruction again and report back. I'll also follow the link you provided to a System Repair Install tutorial and consider it. I'm inclined to clone the 300 GB boot partition I'm using to a separate HD and "repair install" that.

Shen