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Windows update error 0x80073701 and .Net Framework broken
Last August I built a pc and I used the Windows 10 Educational license that my college provided. Everything was fine until a month later when it tried to perform an update. When starting the pc it attempts to update but fails, so it restarts the pc and retries the update. Because it keeps failing, it does this fun boot loop thing between 3 and 6 times before giving up and letting me actually use the computer. This sometimes took up to 30 minutes.
I can't even remember if I did something to fix it or if it just gave up, but it no longer attempts to update on shutdown. In Settings>Update & Security, I can see that the update is still there, it just says "Updates failed" with error 0x80073701. When I click retry it just fails again with the same error code every time. This however wasn't really a problem for me as the computer was now usable.
Last week, .NET Framework broke. When I try to open applications that require it, it just gives an error message saying that I have to install .NET Framework. When looking in the menu to "Turn Windows features on or off", .NET Environment was still enabled (I couldn't find .NET Framework so I assumed this was it). I disabled it and rebooted as prompted. Here's the kicker. When I reenabled it and rebooted again it attempts to install it via Windows update, causing the install to fail because Windows update is broken.
I suppose the problem is similar or the same as in this recent post kb4560960 - 0x80073701
TLDR:
Windows update broke - Error 0x80073701
.NET Framework broke but can't be reinstalled because Windows update is broken.
Windows details:
The PC is currently running Windows 10 Education, version 1903, OS build 18362.295.
In the update settings, it's attempting to install "2020-06 Cumulative Update for Windows 10 Version 1906 for x64-based Systems (KB4560960)".
Things I've tried:
.NET Framework .exe installer:
Does nothing besides giving a message to use "Turn Windows features on or off" instead.
.NET Framework repair tool:
The things it tried are "Reregister Windows Installer service" and "Restart Windows Installer service". It attempts this but does not fix it. It did output a .cab file that I'll include.
Windows Update Troubleshooter:
An unexpected error has occurred
I tried to force an update via the Media Cration Tool:
Bootable USB:
The installer prompts that an update should be performed directly from the Media Creation Tool and not via a bootable USB.
Directly from the Media Creation Tool:
"Sorry, we're having trouble determining if your PC can run Windows 10. Please close the Setup and try again"
This is as far as my knowledge in Windows troubleshooting goes so I started to look up some fixes for error 0x80073701.
net stop wuauserv
net stop cryptSvc
net stop bits
net stop msiserver
ren C:\\Windows\\SoftwareDistribution SoftwareDistribution.old
ren C:\\Windows\\System32\\catroot2 Catroot2.old
net start wuauserv
net start cryptSvc
net start bits
net start msiserver
Result:
Did not work
sfc /scannow
Result:
Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.
Did not work
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image
Result:
Error: 87
An error occurred while processing the command.
Ensure that the command-line arguments are valid. For more information, review the log file. (2020-07-03 17:09:11, Info DISM PID=2380 TID=1776 Scratch dire - Pastebin.com)
Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
Result:
The component store is repairable.
The operation completed successfully.
Did not work
SetupDiag.exe
Result:
Requires .Net Framework. Nice
Any help with this would be greatly appreciated.
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