Windows menu dead, all repair methods fail.

[bmelloni]

My issue:

• About a week or two ago Windows 10 applied a patch that broke the Windows Menu and a few other critical features. Everything else works perfectly.
• I have a commercial tool (Stablebit's Scanner) that I used to verify that my physical disks and circuitry used to reach them are in perfect condition. So, can't pass the blame the hardware.
  
• My antivirus/firewall company (reported by most reviews as the best antivirus/security product for several years in a row) did a deep scan of my system and found zero infections and no tampering. They confirmed my suspicion that this is a symptom of a bad Windows update. So, can't pass the blame to a virus/trojan/etc either.
  
• I already tried every normal method I know of to fix whatever is wrong with windows. Can't even pass the blame to me for not using the normal repair tools.
  • chkdsk found no problems
  • sfc /scannow finds problems but is unable to fix them. For example:
    • "Warning: Overlap: Directory \??\C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers\en-US\ is owned twice or has its security set twice", both old and new by "Microsoft-Windows-Foundation-Default-Security.Resources".
    • Same for C:\WINDOWS\help\mui\0409\, C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\, C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\, C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\, C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64\drivers\en-US\, C:\WINDOWS\SysWOW64\wbem\en-US\, C:\WINDOWS\help\mui\0409\, C:\Program Files (x86)\, C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\, C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\, C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\
      
    • Then I get Hashes for file member [l:18]'SystemSettings.dll' do not match.
    • Same for SecHealthUI.exe, twinui.pcshell.dll, drvstore.dll, mshtml.dll, Windows.Media.Protection.PlayReady.dll, SystemSettings.dll,
    • To add insult to injury we got: "[SR] Could not reproject corrupted file \??\C:\WINDOWS\SystemApps\Microsoft.Windows.SecHealthUI_cw5n1h2txyewy\\SecHealthUI.exe; source file in store is also corrupted"
  • DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth also finds problems and fails to fix them with multiple error blocks like the following:
    • [32] [0xc142011c] UnmarshallImageHandleFromDirectory641)
      [32] [0xc142011c] WIMGetMountedImageHandle2906)
      [32] [0x8007007b] FIOReadFileIntoBuffer1452): The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.
      [32] [0xc142011c] UnmarshallImageHandleFromDirectory641)
      [32] [0xc142011c] WIMGetMountedImageHandle2906)
    • What is insane is that DISM is supposedly going to Microsoft's servers to download fresh copies of the files it needs to make the necessary fixes. Why in the world isn't it able to delete the bad files and replace them with good ones?
  • I even created a bootable windows USB drive with the most recent image (Oct 2020) and tried to run a repair while booting from it. It finds the windows 10 install, begins to repair, fails, but it does not give any signs of problem in the logs.

It is very obvious that the patch thoroughly messed up things for several critical files and folder, blocking itself from further fixes. Searching the web I see that a lot of people have the same problem.


My assumption is that Microsoft would have created a one-time-use repair utility to undo the mess caused by their patch so that the normal fixing methods can then be used to fix the problems. But I have not found it.


I can't afford to do a full reinstall from scratch, even if all my data is safely stored in drives separate from window's C: it would still take at least a week's worth of work to do a clean install and reinstall all of the software I use.


So...

1. Is there an already known solution to this mess?
2. Are there any things I can still attempt on my own?
3. How do I contact Microsoft support to obtain a solution to the mess their poorly built update created?

I am obviously very frustrated at the problem from Microsoft's lame update. My thanks in advance to anyone who helps.

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