Windows Defender Wont Turn On and Windows Update Fails

Just got through cleaning out a friend's laptop, and trying to make sure its up to date with windows update. Every time I try to check for updates, I get the error 80070002. I tried running the microsoft fix it to fix it, but I havent tried it since ive gotten a clean bill of health on this machine. Dell Inspiron Laptop, Windows Vista. (Yeah I know, trying to get him to upgrade)
Windows Defender is turned off, and fails when I try and turn it on. No error message.
Any help is appreciated!!

 

Is there an AV program installed? I seem to remember that Defender in Vista gets disabled when an AV is installed. Defender in Vista is a very different animal from Defender in 8/10.

 

No AV installed right now, (he had McAfee but was expired, I uninstalled during Malware Removal to avoid issues) only going to this site and my email from this computer till its fixed.
Just completely uninstalled McAfee (forgot about the Consumer Product Removal Tool) and now I am told Defender is disabled by group policy. Home Premium doesnt have group policy, does it? I always thought you had to have Professional version (as far back as XP) to get access to GP.

 

Run this http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/mcafee_consumer_product_removal_tool.html
and see if it helps.

 

I ran that before I posted the last comment. Ran it again, with no luck...

 

So... Sorry for the delayed response... I got Win Defender to start running, I believe from one of your links... (I cant remember after the fifth of vodka Ive drank working on this today) I stumbled upon this article that has gotten windows update to work, at least it is now checking for updates ( has been for the last 10 minutes, I have no idea how long this laptop has been without an update... I also fixed the error (I didnt realize I had at first) running "sfc /scannow" from this link as well.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...d4?tab=question&status=AllReplies&auth=1#tabs

I will update tomorrow once I get some answers as to the status of update and the sfc running... Curious to see if anything has been fixed and if the updater will give a list of updates.

 

I hope that SP2 is installed.
If no Service pack, I'm not sure when support ended. For SP1 in Vista, support ended on 12 July 2011. That means after that time, if you searched for updates, it would say none available.

This is the SP2 download
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=16468

 

SP2 was installed already. SFC fixed corrupted files, Win Update has worked, and am installing the last optional update now. I'll be glad to give this back, until he decides what he wants to do for an upgrade plan... Either 7 or 10, no 8 is what he said. I don't think he can upgrade to anything for free from Vista...