A couple quirks.

[pheonix73]

It has been a long time since I last posted here.I have had no real problems,having used what I had learned in the past on how to avoid these situations.I have had couple issues as of late,that I have not been able to rectify myself.I did run the online scan as per instructions and came back clean,with no generated logfile.I have attached the hijackthis file for inspection.

The 2 problems I am having at present are.
(1) I am unable to install the service pack 2 (kb948465)for vista and have failed every time since July.Every time I try to install it I get an error message that reads as follows.
code 80070490 windows update encountered an unknown error.



(2) The drop down menu for past sites visited on my IE explorer bar stopped working 2 weeks ago.Have tried everything in my knowledge level and have not found anything to reset that would turn this function back on.Also have no clue as to what caused it in the first place,except that my wife let me know that when she was browsing a couple weeks back,the screen hiccuped.Since that time this function has been unavailable on both users.

[cauzomb]

Most of what I have read about he vista/update error 80070490 says that a repair installation is required to fix the issue. Another suggestion that you might want to try yourself is to manually download and install windows updates, then reboot and retry automatic updates. Some of the suggestions mentioned that the issue may have been caused by malware, and that the malware was unable to be cleaned with current versions of av/anti-malware applications. The sollutions suggested where malware was a concern was to perform a complete re-installation, including reformatting the disk.

[jholland1964]

I certainly would not begin with reformat reinstall. I would suggest first that you follow the instructions for downloading, updating and running MBA-M. Please have it remove everything found. Post back with the log.
Please download Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware (MBA-M) to your Desktop.

• DoubleClick mbam-setup.exe and follow the prompts to install MBA-M.
• Be sure a checkmark is placed next to Update Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware and Launch Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware, then click Finish.
• If an update is found, it will download and install the latest version.
• Once the program has loaded, select Perform full scan, then click Scan.
• When the scan is complete, click OK, then Show Results to view the results.
• Be sure that everything is checked, and click Remove Selected.
• When MBA-M finishes, Notepad will open with the log. Please save it where you can find it easily. The log can also be opened by going to Start > All Programs > Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware > Logs > log-date.txt.

What online scan did you run?

If the computer DOES definitely show as clean then do the following:
try downloading the standalone install for the Service Pack and save it to the desktop. Then disconnect from the internet, turn off AV program and firewall and try installing that way.

You can get the Standalone version from HERE

[pheonix73]

Sorry to have taken a while to get back in.
The online scan run was Eset,as for the rest of your instructions,I will have to find the time to run them them.My system still runs normally,but I get the updates message every time I start up the system and have come to ignore it.
As for the drop down menu,when I tried to reinstall IE8 to see if it would do anything,I may have gotten a corrupt file.I had to use system restore after attempting to run the program,because it turned all english words on my icons to smybolic gibberish.Luckily I knew what symbol to look for to find restore.

[jholland1964]

Pheonix, please leave IE8 alone. Stick with what you have.
Next download and install a new copy of the Windows Installer
yours may be out of date or corrupt.
Once you have that installed then try the Vista update again.