Vista update on 7/13 causing massive headaches (for me)

There were several updates that we installed on my system either last thursday night or friday morning that are causing me issues. Whenever I try to run any Windows programs (Word, Outlook, Explorer, etc.) I get the popup box Windows Installer, Preparing to Install...some of the programs proceed OK if I cancel the box, others like Outlook and Windows Live OneCare don't.

My Live OneCare has been At Risk since last week with a message OneCare is missing a required update.

I spent several hours with a OneCare tech this morning trying to resolve this....before we even started I told him that I was getting the Windows Installer message that seemed to be the cause of my issues but he wanted to see for himeself. After all that time he told me that I had a corrupted Windows Installer or something and to contact Vista Support. I've been trying to open an email case with them but the link doesn't seem to work properly.

I installed the Office 2007 trial (except for Outlook 2007) and am running it concurrently with Office 2003 (including Outlook 2003)..I think one of the updates from last week was an Office 2007 update...

I did a "remove" from the control panel for all the update packages from last week since I hoped that that would fix everything but it didn't. If I go back into Windows Update it says I'm missing an optional update for Silverlight but nothing else.

If I try to run Outlook the Windows Installer box pops up then finally it says "This update package could not be opened. Verify that the update package exists and that you can access it, or contact the application vendor to verify that this is a valid WIndows Installer update package.

My issues seem to be that something got hosed with the Update and now my PC, that was working perfectly well with Vista, has a major issue. I tried to run Windows Install Cleanup but that hasn't helped (yet). I installed and ran CC Cleaner to see if that could find anything and it didn't find anything significant.

I ran sfc /scannow and it couldn't find any integrity violations. My Windows Update.log file has some interesting things in it but I have no idea if they're relevant or not...

I've searched Google and tried to do some of the fixes suggested but nothing seems to help me....

Any pointers anyone can give me would be most appreciated. I'd rather not reimage my PC but will if I have to get it back...I've got backups from a little over a week ago and just made a copy of all my pictures as well as my Outlook.pst file from last week so I've got that covered but it's just such a pain to start over....

Thanks for your help!

Frank

Hey frobey,

You could try doing a system restore

Hope this helps

Pooch

Thanks Pooch,

a friend of mine recommended that to me (hadn't heard of that tool before)...I run the tool and select "Choose a different restore point"...unfortunately, the oldest restore point is from this morning, not Nov 12th like I'd like...I left out of my problem description that when I reboot my PC as it's coming up the "Windows Installer" popup box comes up over and over until I cancel it...so I don't know if that has filled up all the restore points or what...

The restore points that are shown in the dropdown box all say over and over

11/18/2008 2:43:01 PM Install: Installed Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003
11/18/2008 2:42:09 PM Install: Installed Microsoft Office Professional Edition 2003
.....

which of course I'm not doing and haven't done...that's why I'm thinking that an MSFT update has gone haywire...

Is there a way to select a date older than 11/18?

Thanks again,

Frank

To this I would have suggested to try removing the updates, but you have already done this

I will however suggest removing both office installations and trying ccleaner again
I will also suggest only installing one office software in the future

If this fails your backups are looking like the best answer

Pooch