Microsoft damaged my computer while following READ & RUN ME FIRST

Last week I came to MajorGeeks looking for an anti keylogger since I had run all my antivirus and antispyware programs and my computer was clean. I've been coming to MG for several years but never ran into a problem until now. Nothing was particularly wrong with my computer but being curious I thought I'd run the suite of tools that are offered under the READ & RUN ME FIRST http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407 just to see if anything was wrong.

I followed the instructions to the T and pretty much just created logfiles and ran the programs. Defogger, RogueKiller, MalwareBytes, tdskiller, hitman pro and MG Tools all ran without a hitch. After finding nothing reran defogger to undo whatever it changed (it didn't apparently change anything) and I transferred all the files and logfiles from my desktop (and MG Tools from the C. drive) into their own folder, "Majorgeeks malware removal suite", and packed them away for later. MalwareBytes found a minor issue and I later removed it. Original thread is here. http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=1915519#post1915519

However, here's the problem, I had disabled my antivirus and firewall programs and MalwareBytes requested connection to the internet in order to download updates. Even though I had selected no automatic updates while I was connected Microsoft decided to sneak some "important" AND "recommended" updates onto my computer while my firewall was off.

It was only after restarting my computer did I discover Microsoft had snuck the files onto my computer (one being Microsoft Compatibility Appraiser and another being ProgramDataUpdater to guinnea pig our computers to see if they can take Windows 10 Major Grrrrrr) when I got the message do not turn your computer off windoes is installing updates. So I went out for a walk and let it just finish. After reboot I turned my firewall and antivirus back on and connected to the internet. Lo an behold all these new programs were requesting permission to connect to the internet.

So knowing it was microsoft I went into programs and features and started uninstalling the updates one at a time. I also went into Task Scheduler to remove the entries so they would not run. To my horror I discovered all the entries in Task Scheduler were grayed out. I also ran into problems where I could not uninstall at least a couple of the unwanted updates Silverlight and KB3020369. KB2990214 will not uninstall either as it was improperly installed. I attempted to manually install it with the standalone installer but it gave me an error message saying, "This update is not applicable to your computer." Way off base! When you click on it the "uninstall" link at the top disappears. So I thought to heck with it I'm just going to use a restore point to just before those updates installed.

The Restore point failed, so I tried another one. That failed too. So I went to Windows Update again and tried installing some of the important updates I wanted to keep then they failed. So now my computer is messed up when it was fine before. Everything appears to work on it, I just can't get most updates to install, nor uninstall, nor do anything with Task Scheduler. Event viewer is showing thousands of ntfs Event 137 errors. I tried running microsoft Fixit and autoruns and removed a couple yellow deadends from the autoruns list one being ysyfer service control manager but that hasn't changed anything.

Anyone know what's going on? I really do not want to burn up several days reformatting my hard drive but that looks like where I'm going.

Running Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit SP1. Comodo Internet Security Premium.

[Thanks to Kestral for advising me on removing one minor malware that was discovered. PUP.Optional.VideoCNV.A, HKLM\SYSTEM\CURRENTCONTROLSET\SERVICES\fa6789c5, , [06e95d36286254e2fe0863886f946e92]? ]

 

According to common consensus Microsoft IS malware. I normally have automatic updates disabled except when I am doing maintenance on my computer. Usually when doing maintenance I have the firewall on which prevents hidden and random connections such as to Microsoft.

These steps in the link that vaguely resemble the problem I am having request that I use the System Restore feature. As I mentioned that is failing to work as well. System Restore always broke or slowed down my computer in the past too.
Looks like I am in for a fun reformat and reinstall. It has been a year anyway. Well spent the weekend backing up my stuff.

 

Very simple

 

Waste of time.

 

If you are wanting help, you are going the wrong way about it. Biting the hand that feeds you leaves you starving, cold, and alone.

 

You asked for reputable sources. I gave you them. Now you're changing your mind and requesting that it be discussed in another forum.

You are not "listening." I know I created my own problems, by disabling my firewall while I followed this website's "advice" and AV as was suggested. I am not disavowing myself of responsibility for being foolish enough to follow it.

 

Your link returned this error.

I assume this is not the forum for philosophical discussions either.

In this case the hand poisoned me.

 

There should not be any need for that. If system restore doesn't help it's time you boned up on disk imaging, which enables you to restore your computer to an earlier time when it was trouble free. Takes typically about half an hour, depending on the size of your system partition and whether you are using HDD or SSD drives.

http://www.howtogeek.com/192115/what-you-need-to-know-about-creating-system-image-backups/