Random Windows Question

Hey I'm messing around with a computer and trying to fix it for one of my Dad's friends. By any chance does anyone out there happen to know what directory Windows Vista (ugh.. of all things) store it's Update files at on the hard drive? I've already tried searching the web with no luck.

This may help, maybe?

http://www.trishtech.com/2010/02/view-update-history-in-windows-vista/

thanks sekhmet, but the problem is I can't actually boot the computer up into Windows, it's stuck in one of those "upgrade loops" where it gets to step 3 then restarts it self, over and over again forever. So I'm using some other tools to bypass the normal startup and get into the contents of the hard drive itself. - I need to know where the actual files of the updates are stored, not how to get at them. :T

If you're trying to remove an update or see all updates look at number 2 in my link, I'm sure you can remove a bad link or right click an update and view properties and remove it. Better yet, does he still have the disc? Just do a clean install or go to a restore point prior to his issues.

You can do all that in safe mode. Just keep tapping F8 at boot up and you'll get to the proper menu.

I can't get into safe mode. The computer is stuck in a loop, I can go into BIOS and boot off a CD-ROM or a USB.. Either way I found out where the stuff is stored but it's more complicated that than, literally have to "hack" the thing to try and figure out what file does what. The weirdest thing though was when I just deleted the entire update directory, the computer is STILL stuck in the loop - I have no idea where else these settings would be stored; some sort of cookie or something? A temp directory? Very strange. I can easily just wipe the whole hard drive but I like to screw around with stuff like this, it's a hobby. I guess I'm just a nerd but it's actually fun to me, until I get so frustrated I pass out drunk anyway lol.

Tell him to spend 200 dollars and just buy a used whatever with better specs.

Why didn't I say that in the first place? Fn Vista, lol.

Dont diss windows vista. My laptop was the cheapest in the shop when i bought it in 2008 and it was still going strong until yesterday when the fan died. I hope they can fix it at the moment im on a pc with windows 7 on it and im not getting on with it at all.

Try going to C:/windows/win.sxs and renaming pending.xml to pending.xml.old

Reboot. That should avoid the update, and get you into Win Vista.

Then open regedit and select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. Then click File > Load Hive > C:/windows/system32/config/components > Name: Offline_Components

Then delete the registry subkeys:
HLKM/Offline_Components/AdvancedInstallersNeedResolving
HKLM/Offline_Components/PendingXmlIdentifier

Last reboot hopefully.

*Late note: Replace all forwardslashes with backslashes, as Torn doesn't allow backslash is forum posts

"but I like to screw around with stuff like this, it's a hobby. I guess I'm just a nerd but it's actually fun to me, until I get so frustrated I pass out drunk anyway lol."

I like doing that stuff, too. Ever since the first virus infested desktop I bought in 2003. Then started on hardware when I said f you ps3 not long after. Learned all about RAM, dedicated gpu's, etc.

Now I have an awesome beast of a desktop that I recently bricked because of Auslogics Boostspeed. Took me 3 days to get it to boot. Now it's back to normal but lost a few files and programs that were on the C drive. I keep most of my software on an external ssd.


drunkedit: I tend to drink a lot more beer when I'm in fixit mode, smoke more also.

This works 100% Thank you for taking the time to read what I was asking! :)

Only 3 small things

1) the directory NOT file is 'C:/windows/winsxs/ (directory with slashes in different direction and no dot inbetween the n and s * not a file it's a folder.

2) Since I was doing this outside of windows itself I had to go around and give permissions to C:/windows/winsxs/pending.xml to be able to rename it which wasn't allowed for some reason, not matter what permissions I gave it (Full permissions on ALL accounts, including ALL files and ALL directories didn't work but for some unknown reason it let me copy it to C:Windows then delete it from C:/Windows/winsxs

3) after getting all this crap done I forgot to do the registry stuff you said, but after I rebooted it didn't matter - booted right up into windows; once I got in I just set all the stupid update options to what I wanted them to be on.

Once again, thank you a million times; at this point it doesn't really matter that I fixed the guys computer - although I did find some pretty interesting stuff on it; I now know where windows stores this crap.

Ahh it won't let you type the slashes the correct way, lol nevermind.

No problem, glad it was resolved.

Whoops I forgot to mention why I posted with the forward slashes instead of Windows-ism backslashes. Yeah Torn is too over protection with XSS injection etc and removes backslash support entirely.

..

C:WindowsInstaller



I'm sure this problem has otherwise been resolved, but if it hasn't send me a message. I doubt it's a loop, but, rather probably hardware failure or installation image damage.

Maybe you can say hardware incompatibility, but not hardware failure or installation damage.

My Dad's PC got stuck in boot loops when Vista updated last year, we disabled updates, but it somehow updated and bricked again.

Eventually we purchased a second HDD; I installed Win7 onto it, and we accessed the data on the vista HDD like it was a storage drive.
I guess everyone doesn't have that option.