I resolved virus issues on a customer’s PC and installed SP2 on her 36-bit Vista Home Premium. Decided to upgrade my 64-bit Vista Ultimate and got errors. Had a 2-hr chat session with Microsoft—good support. Some corrupted files were found. A Service Pack2 download froze at 84% complete. Now, I have to do an “in-place-repair” called “an upgrade” for Windows Vista to see if that resolves the issue and then maybe download the SP2 file again. Isn’t computing fun???
I’ve installed SP2. I do not do an upgrade [couldn't from my OEM DVD]. I did not do and “in-place-repair.” Because I could do neither, I ran my previously downloaded SP2.exe. I ran with no error. Something done earlier allowed this to happen. I’ve always liked step-by-step solutions so you know which step solves the problem.
The Microsoft technician did not do this. Actually, his process would have done much more. In the end, it would have appeared to have worked, because what I did worked. Okay, he uninstalled my Nod32 anti virus software and stopped non-Microsoft services. One of those steps may have mattered. I would have stopped the anti virus service and if that did not work, then I may have uninstalled the application.
Anyway, the problem is solved and I can move on. The technician is to call tomorrow.