Windows Update Service is missing

[Trotter]

I have ran into another stumper.

A computer i was cleaning up remotely up and shut down in the middle of MBAM doing a clean on a scan, saying something about Windows had encountered an error blahblahblah. The owner called me up a few days later and said that the computer has a message asking for the Win7 startup disk. I pick the computer up and bring it home and am now finally working on it.

It started up fine, but I soon discovered that I could not update Windows. The message says that the service is not started and that I may have to restart the computer. No sweat, so i restart. Same thing. And then I go to manually start the Windows update Service and discover that it is AWOL. Weird.

I sat back, thought about it, and tried doing a system restore. No dice. It keeps coming up saying that the restore failed and no changes were made... and now the only restore point I see is the one for tonight.

I am now open to solid suggestions. Formatting and reinstalling is an absolute last resort as this is a client's computer and not my own.

And, yes, KSoD, i am looking at you.

 

[baronvongogo]

Is it similar to this issue:
» [SOLUTION] Windows Update and BITS services missing

"You get: “Windows Update cannot currently check for updates, because the service is not running. You may need to restart your computer.” on Windows 7 when checking for updates.

In my case, this happened on two computers that both were infected with the ZeroAccess trojan. The reason this message appears is that the malware deleted the registry keys for Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) and Windows Update (wuauserv).

I searched and searched today, but came up empty trying to find a utility or easy fix. Thankfully, I previously figured this out and here is what to do: (this is an advanced fix and I highly recommend leaving it for professionals; I cannot support you if this causes problems)

1. Run SERVICES.MSC after hitting WINDOWS-R and look for Windows Update and Background Intelligent Transfer Service in the list of services. If they are missing, keep going.

2. Visit Smartest Computing's cache of registry keys. Click Download at the top and save the SEVEN.ZIP (or adapt this if your OS is different) and pull out the bits.reg and wuauserv.reg, double-click each one and restart the computer."

Or have you tried this already?

 

[KSoD]

Repair & Fix Windows Updates with Fix WU Utility
How do I reset Windows Update components?

Try this.

 

[Trotter]

Still a work in progress.

I now have the Windows Update Service back but not BITS. I will be working on that next, once I finish the malware stuff. I will give baronvongogo's link a shot at that one but KSoD's first link did restore the update service.

Thanks for the help so far.

EDIT: The registry files got BITS back. Currently installing updates. Hopefully all will be well now. Much appreciated.

 

[Trotter]

Hoboy. new issue. The previous two are resolved BTW.

In Event Viewer, I am getting this" "The Windows Firewall service terminated with service-specific error Access is denied.." EventID 7024

What I have already done so far... Everything in this link. Exported the MpsSvc registry file from my computer and imported into this one.

BFE is working just fine, and the Windows Firewall service is now in services.msc, but I cannot start it as I get that error in Event Viewer.

Suggestions?

 

[KSoD]

I have been working on a customer's Windows 7 Home Premium x86 system with this exact same scenario. I finally found a solution and hopefully it will help someone here.
I was looking in the registry and found a corrupted firewall key:
HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\services\SharedAccess\Parameters\FirewallPolicy\StandardProfile
The key DoNotAllowExceptions had the following data:
Type: 0x6c039ffb
Value: fd ff ff ff
I deleted that key and recreated it as a DWORD and set the value to 0.
The Windows Firewall now starts without an error.

Taken from here. Try this and see if setting the new DWORD gets you the firewall back.

 

[Trotter]

Weird. This computer's registry doesn't even have StandardProfile under FirewallPolicy, just FirewallRules and RestrictedServices.

Looks like I am going to install a 3rd party firewall on this puppy.