Windows Vista Can't Add or Remove Windows Features!

Hi all. When I try to use the "Turn Windows features on or off" function to add or remove anything I get "An error has occurred. Not all of the features were successfully changed." at the end of the installation. Once I click Ok the windows Features windows closes and when I reopn it again, it doesn't reflect an changes that I have made. I cannot figure out what could be causing this problem. I have googled this problem and it appears to be a very common problem but no one has found a solution. I have already sfc/ scannow from command prompt which didn't find any corrupt files. This is a problem, because I cannot currently add or remove any windows features. Is there a solution for this other than to reinstall Vista?

 

Does anyone else have this problem? I have already ran sfc /scannow from command prompt which didn't find any corrupt files, I have ran Check Disk which didn't find anything and I have tried turning Windows Features on or off in Safe Mode but I got the same error message. It appears that once I make a change and click ok, there is no progress bar in the status window and a few minutes later I get that error message. I am at my wits end on how I am going to solve this issue. I don't want to have to reinstall Vista again in the year and half since I have gotten it just because of a stupid issue like this. Can anyone help?

 

Follow Some Windows Vista functions may not work, or Windows Vista may stop responding

Yes, I know you tried SFC, but continue anyway with the next steps listed & post back.

 

Hey Arie. I ran sfc/ scannow again from command prompt with my vista Installation DVD in the DVD drive. After it completed it said that that there were no integrity violations and no corrupted files were found. I then ran it again but this time without the Vista DVD in the DVD drive and this time it reported that corrupted files were found. So I followed the instructions on the KB article. I ran the findstr /C: "[SR] Cannot repair member file" %windir%\logs\cbs\cbs.log >sfcdetails.txt command followed by the edit sfcdetails.txt command. After I performed the above commands the command prompt window was showing the sfcdeatils.txt file but it was blank. I couldn't see which files SFC couldn't repair so I couldn't replace the corrupted files with good ones. I don't know what to do from here. I tried once again to add/remove a feature and I got the same error as before. In event Viewer I got about 200 errors that are related to the turn windows features on or off error. Here is one of the errors from event viewer.

Log Name: System
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Servicing
Date: 6/16/2008 3:52:52 PM
Event ID: 4375
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: EVAN-OMO\Evan Omo
Computer: evan-omo
Description:
Windows Servicing failed to complete the process of setting package KB938371 (Update) into Staged(Staged) state
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns= "http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event ">
<System>
<Provider Name= "Microsoft-Windows-Servicing" Guid= "{bd12f3b8-fc40-4a61-a307-b7a013a069c1}" EventSourceName= "Microsoft-Windows-Servicing" />
<EventID Qualifiers= "49152 ">4375</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime= "2008-06-16T22:52:52.000Z" />
<EventRecordID>137463</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID= "0" ThreadID= "0" />
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>evan-omo</Computer>
<Security UserID= "S-1-5-21-73586283-1450960922-1177238915-1005" />
</System>
<UserData>
<CbsPackageChangeState xmlns= "http://manifests.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/windows/setup_provider ">
<PackageIdentifier>KB938371</PackageIdentifier>
<ReleaseType>Update</ReleaseType>
<PackageState>Staged</PackageState>
<PackageAssembly>Package_31_for_KB938371~31bf3856ad364e35~x86~~6.0.2.27</PackageAssembly>
<Operation>Staged</Operation>
<OperationCompleted>True</OperationCompleted>
<ErrorCode>0x80070246</ErrorCode>
<RebootOption>False</RebootOption>
<MissingElements>
</MissingElements>
</CbsPackageChangeState>
</UserData>
</Event>

 

OK, try this: The "Windows Features" dialog box is empty in Windows Vista, or you receive an error message that includes the following code when you try to use Windows Update: "0x80073712 "

 

Another quick question... did you move the Public Folder to another location?

 

The KB article you just gave me didn't offer any help since I have run SFC miltple times and I still get the same error and I cant do a system restore because I don't know of a date when this issue wasn't occuring. To answer your question, no I haven't moved the Public folder to a different location. It should be located in the directory C:/Users/Public correct? Thats where it resides now. Have you ever experienced this error on your Vista machine?

 

No, but I've seen it reported on occasion. I'll check around a bit more...

 

Ok Thanks. Let me know if you find another possible solution for this problem.

 

Any word of a solution to this problem?

 

Unfortunately no. I would open a support ticket with Microsoft.

 

Ok Arie. Thanks for helping me out! I wil see what Microsoft has to say about this issue. If I find a solution I'll let you know.