Vista launch stalls after Window update

I'm running Vista Home Premium on a Dell XPS 410 PC.
A Windows automatic update installed this afternoon (yeah, bad idea, I know).

Now Vista launches about half-way then freezes. Some desktop icons are displayed but they are generic and non-functional. Any program icon I click yields an error box that states,"Chose the program you want to open this file:" The only option offered is Adobe Reader - not helpful. Data files on the desktop open and display OK. I disconnected all peripherals and rebooted but that didn't help.

I ran System Restore back to the point the Windows update was installed this afternoon, but restore was "unsuccessful." I tried to run it back to an older restore point, but now System Restore won't work anymore. I get the same "Chose the program you want to open this file:" box.

I rebooted in Safe Mode, but System restore won't run in Safe Mode either.

I ran sfc / scannow in cmd, but it found no error.

I'm able to write this message because the Vista Forums icon I have on the desktop connects me to the internet, while the Explorer and Firefox icons do not.

Any suggestion would be appreciated.

Hallo jgnann, you could try booting into recovery options on my laptop it is f11 and try the last good configuration option.

Or else in safe mode open Windows updates & in the bottom LH corner is Installed Updates from there you should be able to uninstall the offending update and see if that helps.

Also while in safe mode just check Device Manager in your Control Panel if the update was a driver that did not install properly there will be a yellow triangle with an exclimation mark on it.

If this has happened you can right click on the driver & select Properties then select the Driver tab & you will see an option to Roll back driver to previous version.

I hope one of these helps resolve your issue

Mitchell, thanks for your suggestion, but no improvement.

Recovery options didn't help anything.

I tried to go to Windows Update as you suggested, but I get the same "Open with: Choose the program you want to open this file:" box that I get when I try to open any application.

I check Device Manager - no yellow triangles to indicate bad drivers.

I went to Event Viewer, and there is a lot of info there that I don't know what to do with. No "Critical" events are recorded, but there have been 28 errors in the last 24 hours. I have no idea what most of them mean. One is Event 7026, service Control manager that indicates that "the following boot-start or system-start drivers failed to load: + System - Provider [ Name] Service Control Manager [ Guid] {555908D1-A6D7-4695-8E1E-26931D2012F4} [ EventSourceName] Service Control Manager
- EventID 7026 [ Qualifiers] 49152
Version 0 Level 2 Task 0 Opcode 0 Keywords 0x80000000000000 - TimeCreated [ SystemTime] 2010-03-12T13:33:13.000Z
EventRecordID 215168 Correlation - Execution [ ProcessID] 0 [ ThreadID] 0
Channel System Computer John-PC Security
- EventData

param1 BHDrvx86 ccHP eeCtrl IDSVix86 SASDIFSV SASKUTIL spldr SRTSPX SYMTDI Wanarpv6
Is that meaningful?