System Restore broke all of my downloaded apps; audio is broken still

Hi, you've not quoted your Windows build number as prompted by the forum to save us continually asking.
Win key + r, winver. Thanks.

You mention KB2993939 - I have searched for that: it seems to apply to 1803 build 17134.112 with some later references ("Security update for Microsoft ASP.NET MVC 2 KB2993939"), whilst KB4565633, a Net framework update, appears to be for 1903.

If in fact you have 2004, then see
Known and Resolved issues for Windows 10 May 2020 Update version 2004

Errors or issues during or after updating devices with Conexant ISST audio drivers Devices with affected Conexant ISST audio drivers might receive an error or have issues with Windows 10, version 2004. See details >	N/A	Investigating	May 27, 2020 10:07 AM PT
Errors or issues during or after updating devices with certain Conexant audio drivers Devices with affected Conexant or Synaptics audio drivers might receive a stop error with a blue screen. See details >	N/A	Investigating	May 27, 2020 10:07 AM PT
Issues updating or starting up devices when aksfridge.sys or aksdf.sys is present Devices with apps or drivers using certain versions of aksfridge.sys or aksdf.sys might have issues updating or starting See details >	N/A	Investigating	May 27, 2020 10:07 AM PT

and consider whether any of these might be relevant.

After a series of Windows 10 updates last week

- Did this include a feature update (upgrade)?
Please post a screenshot of your Update History for this period thus:


Given the complexity of two programs being involved as well, reversing those updates as you tried would seem sensible.

Do you use disk imaging routinely as is so often recommended here? (e.g. Macrium Reflect - free-paid - so you can revert to a previous good state- even if your disk fails).

Hi, thanks, from that it looks like the top 3 updates on 21/7/20 are presumably the ones that affected your software. Here are the News items (there's a thread per update per build there with comments and download links).

KB4565483 CU Win 10 v1903 build 18362.959 and v1909 build 18363.959

KB2993939 - nothing on tenforums.
This is old- 30/5/2017. What is it?
. ASP.NET is a free web framework offered in Windows 10 for building websites and web applications using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

KB4565633 Cumulative Update .NET Framework 3.5, 4.8 Windows 10 July 14

zoom is reliant on net framework 3.5
Camtasia requires NET Framework version 4.6 or later

I would suggest you try uninstalling each update individually and retrying your software.

Disk imaging now will secure your current state, but not help with the problem. It creates a full backup of the used part of the partitions imaged in a compressed file. Disk imaging programs provide means of managing those files and backup jobs to make this simpler and faster. E.g. Macrium Reflect (free-paid- better + forum access) + large enough external storage.

Can help if your disk fails (new disk), PC becomes unbootable, affected by ransomware or insoluble problem. Disadvantage of restoring an image of Windows (all partitions) is any data on C: reverts as well, so a good strategy is to keep personal data of C: as I think you say you have, although there will still be some.

Macrium Reflect is recommended time and again- the free version is good enough. Of course there are other such progs. Considered the most competent, its GUI is somewhat old fashioned and can deter people, but once you've poked around and got use to it it's ok.

Plenty of youtube videos: a couple of basic tutorials on this site (search the tutorials section) - rather old now.

Aim to do a base (initial) disk image of all partitions comprising Windows (that's 4 for UEFI installations, fewer for MBR), and create as prompted by MR a Macrium job that specifies the destination, the number of backups to be kept (retention rules) - which limits the disk space needed). You can specify another backup job for data partitions- or if you wish, do everything in one, but I find that more cumbersome. Your choice.

The base image will be perhaps 40-60% of the size of the used part of the Windows partitions imaged. Incrementals will vary depending on how much changes- installations, updates...

Allow for a disk at least as big as the used space to be imaged, and add some for future proofing. Start thinking up to 1-2TB portable hard drives. Some of these are really cheap now, but make sure they are reliable ones.

Useful trick so your backup drive is always allocated the same drive letter: assign it (say) drive letter R - late- in Disk Management. Then it will always be R when plugged in.

Whilst you could split the space on your backup drive between, say, the small requirement for Macrium R's PE environment (bootable) and a large partition for image files, I would recommend keeping it simple- use flash drives as bootable drives, and your backup drive purely for image files. There are many different possible combinations you could use, but the security of your backups is a prime consideration which from my perspective means you wouldn't use them also as bootable drives.

Further, if there's a major update to MR, updating the bootable medium is recommended. Imaging you have several drives with image files. You only really want to update 1 bootable drive- a flash drive.

I've answered that post. Two of the updates appear in your list. What happens if you follow the instructions shown?

You can also rt click an update, click Uninstall.