Vista - Windows Update Failure - Error Code 80073712

Windows Update Failure - Error Code 80073712 . tried everything under the sky. forusm say abotu deleting the pending.xml file , but there is no such file under winsxs folder (windows\winsxs) . The os is VIsta X64 and if we go into windows update screen we see that all teh updates have failed to install. When we try to download the Windows Update Manager for vista x64 while copyign files it gives the same error code. We have even tried running sfc /scannow , it takes some time , completes the verification (100 %) and says that it found corrupt files but failed to reolve the issue. Please suggest..

Just to update we have also tried the following fix :

regsvr32 wuapi.dll
regsvr32 wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 wuaueng1.dll
regsvr32 wucltui.dll
regsvr32 wups.dll
regsvr32 wups2.dll
regsvr32 wuweb.dll

still no joy...


Sorry to keep on updating the post .... we have norton internet security on the system. we have not tried disabling the firewall before attempting to register the above files. however , we received no error messages while registering the files. we got confirmation after every file registration that the dll file has been registered successfully

I think there is no more step left in the course book .. hence no replies... no worries , i am making our friend run a factory image restore on the hard drive. Windows Mail as always gave me some hiccups while exporting the messages as it came up with an error which said that the external HDD where i was saving the file , was running out of space (Genius!!! , the external HDD has 195 GB of free space and the file we were copying is 296 MB ) or the messages are corrupt. I then had to turn off the UAC, copy the actual Windows Mail folder at a differet location on the HDD and change the file attributes and finally it got copied on the external drive manually(Microsoft should have had reasons to release Widnwos 7).... neways i thank all the viewers for passing by the post and pray to God that i resolve the issue as early as possible.

this is the only thing i could find

http://www.windowsreference.com/wind...indows-update/

What error could it not fix? See the tip in the SFS tutorial.

Have you tried this?The "Windows Features" dialog box is empty in Windows Vista, or you receive an error message that includes the following code when you try to use Windows Update: "0x80073712"

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/947821

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/971058

Thanks mate .. but i have all ready tried those steps ...

I tried everything my friend .... as i said i left no stones unturned ... i finally got so freaked out that i went to the microsoft forum and puked my frustration ...

What i have observed that the Microsoft guys after their usual "mumbo-jmbos" advise you to run a repair installation ( in place upgrade),,, which i think might not be the answer to the problem ... we finally had to reinstall the OS which solved the problem. But the woes were not settling down... the guy then asked me to install a Dell Printer 920 AIO on his VIsta 64 BIt XPS system... he advised me to use the old XP drivers for the printer to do that job , which obviouslly failed .... in the end .... a pretty disgusting call... Neways , i still have nto been able to find the answer for the error message.

LOL gotta love Micro$oft, some of them don't even know their own software.