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ddantesFlag for United States of America

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Quirks after Windows Update

Although it is contrary to recommendations, I avoided installing Windows Updates on my Windows 7 Professional SP-1 32-bit system for two years.  This was because the updates sometimes produced unwanted behavior, which required searching for and removing the offending update.  In light of recent Cyber attacks on vulnerable Windows systems, I relented yesterday, and used WSUS to install two years worth of Windows Updates offline.  There are unwanted behaviors now, and I'd appreciate some guidance in rectifying them.  

One issue is that instances of iexplore.exe remain active after closing all Internet Explorer browser windows.  This is a problem, because the next time I intentionally launch Internet Explorer, it doesn't load completely, and cannot navigate, until I close all instances in Task Manager and relaunch it.

Another issue is that a folder cannot be renamed without a "Could not find this item" window appearing, which requires clicking "Retry" to complete the renaming process.

Thanks in advance.
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John
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First do not turn Updates off. You have stated why yourself and it is a bad idea to turn Updates off.

Second go back and do recommended updates to ensure .NET is updated.

Third check very thoroughly for viruses and malware
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ASKER

Thank you for commenting.  The screen shot shows which .NET updates were applied yesterday.  MalWareBytes and Norton Security have scanned the system and found no infection.  The behaviors which I specified did not happen until the updates were installed, and similar behaviors have happened in the past, after installing Windows Updates.User generated image
Try running System File Checker.

Open cmd.exe with Run as Administrator and run SFC /SCANNOW. Allow to complete and restart, test.

You may have done some OS damage by not running updates for 2 years.
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ASKER

SFC verified 100% of system files and reported no error.  No change in the behaviors after a reboot.
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John
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OK.  I'll post again after the Windows repair, but it may take a day or two before I can accomplish that...
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The Windows repair resolved the folder renaming issue.  Unfortunately, many applications would not launch, or stopped working immediately after launch.  I believe this is related to my use of an application called RamDisk, which requires adjustment of system environment variables.   Long story short, I restored a disk image which was made before the Windows repair.   I'll look for another way to deal with the "quirks", because I don't have the time to troubleshoot the unexpected issues which happened with the Windows repair.  Thank you for your input on this question.
Thanks for the update and I was happy to help you.