Vista: The update does not apply to your system

[SFC] is perhaps a bit more ominous. It quickly returns an error "Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation", even when I boot up in safe mode. A trawl around the internet points to reinstalling Windows, but I can't say that's an option that thrills me.

Would getting a new computer "float your boat?"

Reminder: Support (and updates) for Vista SP2 ends on 11 April 2017.

3. CHKDSK. This reported a volume bitmap error. I ran it again with the /f parameter set, and it looks like its successfully fixed the bitmap error. I've run CHKDSK again and it now reports no errors.
4. SFC. This is perhaps a bit more ominous. It quickly returns an error "Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation", even when I boot up in safe mode. A trawl around the internet points to reinstalling Windows, but I can't say that's an option that thrills me.

Hi JL3008:

First, make sure you're logged in with a Windows user account that has Administrator rights before starting.  If you aren't sure see the Microsoft support article How to Determine Your User Account Type in Windows.

Did you run Check Disk (chkdsk) from an elevated command prompt (i.e., click on the Windows Start button, enter cmd in the search box, right-click on cmd.exe, and select Run as Administrator), and did you use the chkdsk /ror just chkdsk /f ?  You only have about 10% free disk space on your hard drive and use most of your drive for storing media files, which means that you're performing an excessive number of read/writes within a limited area on your hard drive every time you install or update software.  I was going to suggest that you run a thorough scan with the /r switch (i.e., to scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors) in case you've corrupted files by writing into a bad sector on your hard drive.  If there are errors on the drive, System File Checker (SFC) may fail.  Note that a thorough chkdsk /r can take a few hours to run, so be patient and wait for the scan to run to completion.

If System File Checker (SFC) continues to fails with the "Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation" error after you run chkdsk /r, make sure you run SFC from an elevated command prompt with Administrator rights, and try running SFC after booting into Safe Mode (i.e., restart your computer, repeatedly tap F8 before the Windows logo appears and select Safe Mode from the Advanced Boot Options menu) if running from an elevated command prompt doesn't help.  As a quick test, use the sfc /verifyonly command (diagnostic mode) and see if that works before you move on to sfc /scannow (repair mode) .

Please note that I only asked if you had recently run any of these diagnostics and would have been happy to provide instructions, as well as a link to the correct BullGuard Uninstall utility for your BullGuard security software.  For future reference, there are several sites that maintain download links for antivirus removal tools, including ESET's Uninstallers (Removal Tools) for Common Windows Antivirus Software and MS MVP and forum moderator Stephen Boots' wiki article List of Anti-Malware Product Removal Tools in this MS Answers forum.

32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v51.0.1 * NIS v22.8.1.14 * Speccy 1.30.728

HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Hello again,

1. Bullguard deinstallation. I deinstalled from Control Panel, because the instructions on the Bullguard website said it was safe to do it that way. I've since downloaded and run the Bullguard Removal Tool, rebooted, but I still get the "does not apply" error when I try to install an update. I've tried kb3185911 and the seemingly more innocuous kb3203621.
2. Speccy. Strange one that. I did briefly stop both services (and by "briefly" I mean for about 15 minutes or so), but restarted them again long before running Speccy. I've run it again since, and both services are now shown as running.
3. CHKDSK. This reported a volume bitmap error. I ran it again with the /f parameter set, and it looks like its successfully fixed the bitmap error. I've run CHKDSK again and it now reports no errors.
4. SFC. This is perhaps a bit more ominous. It quickly returns an error "Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation", even when I boot up in safe mode. A trawl around the internet points to reinstalling Windows, but I can't say that's an option that thrills me.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Hi JL3008:

Two more quick questions:

When PA Bear was helping you clean McAfee and BullGuard off your computer, did you ever run the BullGuard Uninstall removal tool to remove the last traces if BullGuard off your system, or just uninstall from the Control Panel?

I was looking through your Speccy profile today at http://speccy.piriform.com/results/Av0os0jP0zjidReGZrUoCqp and just noticed that both your BITS and Windows Update services were STOPPED.  Do you remember manually stopping these services before you captured your profile, and if you re-boot your computer and view your Windows Services today is the default startup type set to Automatic (Delayed Start) and is the status STARTED for both these services?

32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v51.0.1 * NIS v22.8.1.14 * Speccy 1.30.728

HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS

Hi JL3008:

Something's definitely wrong if you're getting a "not applicable" warning with KB3203621 (Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 9 : December 13, 2016).  The documentation in the Microsoft Update Catalog shows that KB3203621 replaces (supersedes) KB3139929 (Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 9 : March 8, 2016) in the supersedence chain for IE9, and there are no newer updates for IE9 that replace KB3203621, so supersedence can't be the only cause of these repeated warnings.

It is  probably is worth repeating that Vista SP2 users who experience the "Checking for updates..." hangs and slow Windows Updates described in m#l's thread Updates not working, it has been searching for updates for hours do not see an error message while the Windows Update Agent is searching the update catalog update catalog (wsusscn2.cab).  These "Checking for updates..." hangs occur because Windows Update components for Vista SP2 are outdated, and not corrupted.  Dalai has posted background information at http://wu.krelay.de/en/info.htm, and two main factors contributing to these "Checking for updates..." hangs" (aside from hardware specs such as 32-bit vs. 64-bit architecture, CPU speed and amount of RAM) are:

• The Windows Update Agent v7.6.7600.256 (C:\Windows\system32\wuaueng.dll) for Vista SP2 has not been updated since June 2012 and is not optimized for computers with slower CPUs and limited amounts of RAM
• Microsoft has stopped performing regular purges of ex pired updates for Vista SP2 since Win 10 was officially released on 29-Jul-2015

The error code 8000FFFF you see on your own machine when you run a manual Windows Update, as well as the unexpected "not applicable" warnings you see when you try to install any standalone .msu installer, point to a more serious problem.  According to the AskLeo article What is Error 8000FFFF when I try to install a Windows Vista Update? and TaurArian's article at http://taurarian.mvps.org/WU_Vista/8000ffff.htm, error code 8000FFFF is simply a generic error that means "Unexpected Error".  Causes can range from a hardware incompatibility for a single update to a corrupted Windows Update Agent or a more serious problem with corrupted read/write/edit/delete permissions for your C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution or C:\Windows\System32\Catroot2 folders and/or Windows registry entries.

The free version of Speccy is a "quick and dirty" diagnostic that only gives a snapshot of your important hardware and software components, but if your Speccy profile is displaying incorrect information about version numbers for some of your recently installed software (e.g., Java, NVIDIA, etc.) it makes me wonder if you have a more serious issue with your system files that go beyond Windows updates.

I re-read some of your earlier posts in m#l's thread, and this issue with the "not applicable" warnings for all your .msu installers dates back to at least October 2016.  Is this around the time that you tried re-creating your C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution folder, and have you tried running any built-in Windows diagnostics like Check Disk (chkdsk) and System File Checker (sfc)?

32-bit Vista Home Premium SP2 * Firefox v51.0.1 * NIS v22.8.1.14 * Speccy 1.30.728

HP Pavilion dv6835ca, Intel Core2Duo T5550 @ 1.83 GHz, 3 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS