Vista ceased working after the 17th Nov Update, now only Safe Mode works

Hi guys, Foxfax again, and this time it might not be a virus eating my computer from within!

I recently moved into a new flat and brought my trusty desktop with me. Having been away from the poor thing for nearly 2 months and, with all the jiggling from the move, I took the side panel off and made sure everything was plugged in correctly before booting up. Everything was fine. Since it's been a while, there were around 40 updates Windows was screaming at me to install. First I ensured everything was all right, and all programs that I tried worked including Steam, OpenOffice, Adobe Reader, Solitaire and World of Tanks. So I shut down and let Windows Update install the updates completely, but problems then began to arise.

Now, when I turn the computer on, it hangs either at the Welcome screen after I log in, or at Configuring Update 1 of 3: 0% or 3 of 3: 0% before the log in screen. The furthest I've gotten is an all-black screen with a cursor and nothing else after 45 minutes of waiting when I fell asleep once, and another time when it got to the desktop and froze there. Safe Mode seems fine, and I can access pretty much anything bar those things Safe Mode seems unsafe. After I shut down Safe Mode (usually because I've been trying something that requires it), the "Configuring Updates" screen appears, but nothing changes.

I tried System Restore, but there were only two Restore Points and neither worked. Safe Mode won't let me manually uninstall the updates ("Windows Installer is not installed correctly" is the popup I get). I've run CheckDisk and System Repair to no avail.

Running Vista SP2 (32 bit), on an Acer Aspire with a Core 2 Duo E4600. Just to put the topping on the cake, Vista was preinstalled on the system, so I don't have a Vista DVD to reinstall or repair from without having to fork out cash.

For reference, I haven't done much bar running through the READ & RUN ME FIRST checklist in case it's not Windows hating me(except MGTools, which I'm about to run, then head to bed), and trying System Restore, Check Disk and System Repair in case it is.

How do I fix this? Any ideas for when I wake up? :-o

 

I don't run Vista but my two Acer netbooks running Win 7, I burned the recovery DVDs.
http://en.kioskea.net/faq/2040-acer-pc-restore-to-factory-settings
I assume this is also present in Vista because the pictures show an XP computer with the program.
If you can get to this from safe mode, burn the disks.

 

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like I can get into that in Safe Mode.

 

What does Alt + F10 pressed at boot do?
Warning if you use Acer's eRecovery you will lose everything so be sure you have your data backed up off the computer and you have disks for all the programs you've installed.

 

I seems to boot up the Acer eRecovery popup. But I didn't dare touch anything.

 

Since you don't seem to have a Vista disk and made no images, then you may have to make the very hard choice and use eRecovery to get the computer back to how it was when it left the factory.

October was a bad month for patches. I was reading that some caused problems. Before I installed any windows updates in October, I made images of the 6 computers running XP and 7 in our home. It took long but it was worth the time just in case an update took down a computer or two.

 

Will the OS at least still be there? I've only got about a DVD's worth of info that I need to keep since I buy everything legit and have ll the disks.

 

The OS as well as all the bloatware installed when it came from the factory will be on the computer. You will need to do ALL the updates, as well as any service packs that were not installed when the computer was new. So you will be looking at several years worth of MS updates.
You might want to be sure you have some security programs ready to install from a USB stick as soon as the fresh install of Vista loads.
Quickly turn off automatic updates as soon as the computer is restored or you might find yourself in the same situation because one of the 2 months missing updates which caused your current problem might install in the background.

I purchased a refurbed Win 7 computer and before I knew what happened 60 some updates were downloaded and started to be installed. Fortunately it doesn't cause a problem but I did turn off auto updates. I then updated about 10 -15 at a time, wrote down what I installed and used the computer a bit to determine all was okay before I selected the next batch of updates to install.

 

*sigh* I was hoping it wouldn't come to that. Buy if I must... fare-thee-well random stuff I've downloaded! May you bother me never again! On the other hand., I'm bl**dy-well reinstalling Dawn of War 1 and 2 and Sons of a Solar Empire again. Some things are too good to not have.

I'll be creating a backup Vista DVD from MS as soon as I can convince them to give me one, just in case. Does W7 work better than Vista, specs wise? Would it be worth it to just get W7 and upgrade?