maybe the windows updates aren't working because you used windows recovery feature??? - that's the only thing I can think of right now. Personally speaking if this was my problem I would back up whatever I can (very thoroughly too) and then re-install everything.. in the long run it'll be much quicker than weeks of wondering WTF is going on, plus you have the comforting feeling of having a "clean" system once again.

On my next re-install I'm just gonna install the "essentials" for windows on a small-ish HDD - and then run other stuff on linux distro instead on another smallish HDD, then put all my movies etc on a shared partition HDD or 3... that way if I have to ever re-install again it's not too much bother.

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I think it's a combo of the recovery feature perhaps buggering things up (system restores can wreak havoc on the registry- one reason I recommend never using them) and your update patch being a bit outdated. Perhaps Microsoft has figured it out and cut off the patch so to speak. That particular patch is updated regularly.

What you can do is download the monthly security isos for free and with no WGA and install them or look up the updates contained in each one and install them manually.

You can find the monthly security isos here:

Security updates are available on ISO-9660 DVD5 image files from the Microsoft Download Center

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