I'm sorry for the long delay in my response, my dial-up connection has been
acting up, and I didn't use the pc all weekend.
Anyway, The reason why I did system restore is because of an accidental
uninstallation I did on Mcafee Security center. I used the mcpr.exe tool
(McaFee consumer products removal tool), without knowing that it uninstalls
the entire security center instead of one program or tool of it. I then
stopped the tool midway of the uninstall procedure, and afterwards I noticed
the Mcafee security center icon still in the system tray, and I was even able
to open up The Security center. I then saw the protection status errors on
the home screen and thought that a system restore would restore the files,
and that's when everything went downhill after the computer restarted.
Mowgreen, I tried using the tool that you recommended to me, but it did not
fix the problem. And FYI, Windows Defender returns the following error code
after it attempts to download: 0x80072efd. I'll look it up on the Microsoft
knowledge base.
Also, windows event viewer returned the following error message:
Installation failure: Windows failed to install the update with the following
error:0xc0000005: Definition Update for Windows Defender - KB915597
(Definition 1.47.283.0).
My dial-up connection also terminates soon afterwards and it is difficult to
reestablish the connection, I have to restart the computer to do so.

--
Dell Dimension 2400 PC
Windows xp version 2002 service pack 2 with windows defender and Mcafee
security center
Pentium 4 2.66 ghz processor
256mb of ram (PC2700)
40gb western digital hard drive



"PA Bear [MS MVP]" wrote:

> Why did you use System Restore 2 or so weeks ago?
>
> Enigma_the_ scorpio wrote:
> > On pc startup, I get a "Generic host process for windows needs to close"
> > error message with the following files associated: svchost.exe and
> > wuaueng.dll. These messages started to occur after a system restore
> > operation I did 2 or so weeks ago. Also, Windows defender cannot check
> > updates automatically, and the same error message pops up when it
> > (Defender) attempts to do so. The two errors are related and I suspect
> > that
> > it has something to do with the way windows renames files during system
> > restoration.
> > Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
>