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#1
No updates for Windows 7, 32-bit
Starting about a week ago, Windows Updater (WU) on my Win7 Home Premium 32-bit system began to act abnormally, has been degenerating in capability, and is now unable (or unwilling) to install any updates at all. The condition seemed to coincide with V320 of wuaueng.dll being installed automatically by WU.
First indication was that WU would take a much longer than usual time to search for updates (though the Systray icon advised that updates were available), then advise that a new, up-to-date update routine needed to be installed. (This has been reported here on SevenForums and elsewhere.) The installation was never successful—update history would show that Windows Update Agent 7.6.7600.320 installation had failed, time after time.
System Restore to a few days earlier got WU going again, but attempt to let WU manage installation of any selected update(s) would soon again yield essentially what I've described in the para. above. Another System Restore would get V256 of wuaueng.dll installed in place of V320, and I was able to download and install a handful of updates manually. Any attempt to use WU would fail the same way, however.
A day or so later, attempt to launch WU would result in failure, with error code 80070005 reported. Following instructions for this error code given by Support.Microsoft.com did not cure the problem. Searching for other help from Support.Microsoft.com turned up instructions to stop the Windows Update Service, re-register certain DLLs, re-start the Service. Following these resulted in the Windows Updater now launching...but with an anomalous dialog (attached).
Clicking the OK button yields a window containing this advisory: "Windows cannot access the specified device, path, or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access this item." (The title bar of the window begins ":{26EE0668-A00A-44D7-9371-BEB064C98683}\{36EEF7B...") This is definitely an Administrator account, with UAC cranked all the way down.
I checked the wuapp.exe and wuaueng.dll files residing in an alternative HD that runs the same version of Win7 as does my primary drive (I keep the alternative drive up-to-date) against the ones in my primary drive's C:\Windows\System32 folder—they are byte-for-byte identical. Starting Win7 from the alternative drive yields completely normal Windows Update operation...and V320 of wuaueng.dll is the version in the System32 folder.
Strangely, if I copy wuapp.exe from the System32 folder on my primary drive to any other folder on the drive and launch it, wuapp.exe starts up normally! However, no updates can be installed. This may tally with the fact that now I can't get any updates to install from downloaded installers.
I'm now having no success with System Restore.
Addressing the required "posting info":
1. System Update Readiness Tool (SURT) — will not install and run. No error number is reported.
2. SFC Scan — no corrupted or missing files are reported
3. Windows Update Error Codes — the only error code reported in this whole mess is 80070005...and it's no longer reported, because WU doesn't get that far.
4. Log Collection — Zip-ed version of CBS.log is attached
5. Start a New Thread — done herewith
Thx in advance for advice and instructions. If I need post more data, please advise.
I'm open to any/all guidance for "surgical" fixes...but if there is a "tac nuke" approach (e.g., restoring folders and files from Shadow Copies, copying folders and files from the alternative drive) short of a Repair Install of Win7 that I could try, I'm willing to give it a go. I keep extensive archives of the primary drive and have access to a fully-functional drive running the same version of Win7. In past years, I've been adept in replacing corrupted Default, Sam, Security Software, System config files to rescue a wacked Registry. A plethora of these (and other Windows-related folders and files) from the previous week and earlier are available in the large Shadow Copy folders on the primary drive.
Will do a repair install if absolutely necessary...but would really like to avoid that.
Shen