Unable to fully configure Windows Update

My OS was clean installed from retail DVD the first time. Two years ago from the SP1 downloaded from MS and the same key.
I do not use antivirals simultaneously and they are not the full installed programs. They are only the portable kind. The only one installed is the MS Security Essential, properly turned off.
At one time I tried a repair install but failed to work because it said that I had a newer version and could not get the appropriate one. (Version 6.1.7601).
I will work on it again.
Thanks.

Hi Doc,

Which user do you generally login as -if its not Admin then login with it and check windows update,
we can check your current users and rights using this tool, copy/paste the output - both please

Download Farbar Recovery Scan Tool


As for your previous attempt at a repair install, you likely used a W7 image not W7 SP1
(you can download W7 SP1 from MS)

Roy

Ok, I downloaded the iso file from MS with my key from the W7-DVD. The key was not previously necessary but is Ok. My older downloads are also iso and of exactly the same size. They are not image.
Do you happened to know the current version? Properties gives no clues.
You appears to assume I am a neophyte, kindly give me a break. I gave you the model of my laptop and the key in it is for XP.
I am 84 years old and I learn on a Commodore 64.
Thanks very much for your assistance.
Cheers.

Hi Doc,

i can only go on the info provided.

The error message you posted stated a newer version is installed.
W7 has only 2 iterrations either W7 (7600) or W7 SP1 (7601).

can you post the 2 logs from Farbar (FRST).

Roy

How to fix Security Issue upgrading to W10 (Or even upgrades to W7 if you are still running that OS) Cannot apply the security template for the new OS. Error: 0x800704B8

Note this is not for the non-technical user and does require manually editing the Registry so be certain to set a System Restore Checkpoint and backup your registry before you begin. Just sayin.

Open a CMD prompt with administrator privileges
run the command:

secedit /configure /cfg %windir%\inf\defltbase.inf /db defltbase.sdb /verbose

Look at secsrv log file in %windir$\security\logs and identify the specific registry entries with Access Denied issues. There may be lots of them. (We are not as concerned about entries where "...cannot find the file or path specified") You will need to check the permissions and set Owner for each Access Denied entry individually. Permissions/Ownership within a higher level entry may differ as they cascade from level to level so don't just set a top level entry to save the time of hitting each lower level entry individually. If you try to take shortcuts you may make Windows stop working altogether.

Open Regedit, find each of those "Access Denied" entries, Rt Click and under Permissions check the Permissions are correct (use a functional PC to compare) and under Advanced set Owner for each noted reg entry with an Access Denied issue to what it is supposed to be. The entry should generally still show what the owner is ie: SYSTEM or Administrators Group, but again you may want to compare against a working PC. Then use " Replace owner on subcontainers and objects" to push the Correct Ownership down from that Access Denied entry through the nested reg entries. If you get errors doing so at a high level, keep drilling down until you are able to reset the Ownership. Run the secedit command again and check the log file for more errors. Once you are able to run the secedit command cleanly, and you get to where there are no Access Denied errors you should be in good shape. Note you may have to run RegEdt32 if there are specific 32bit entry Access Denied issues that affect your situation. In my case there were still a few errors in the 32bit specific entries but those actually didn't affect my OS upgrade.

Then you should be able to update Windows to the next version.

I believe in the case of the machines I'm seeing with this issue, malware had run some kind of permissions change policy against the registry and made a mess of the default permissions. Removing the malware long ago apparently didn't undo the permissions changes to the registry so I was left to cope with that manually. It's a bit tedious but if you absolutely cannot wipe and reload from scratch it might be worth doing. Worked for me.