The problems that caused W.U. to fail on December 2018 have been solved by an almost Sisyphusian (certainly Herculean) effort by softwaremaniac that started on February 19, 2019, and ran until April 13, 2019. At least seven different tools were used to analyze and finally fix the problem, at least three of which are from 3rd parties (not MS).
Earlier in this thread I reposted a post by Niemiro from on a similar thread describing how and why these problems are usually fixed by human, small-step repetitive cycles of analyses and corrections until a solution is converged, rather than through one direct analysis and correction by a software tool. Preceding that I also posted my critique of the W.U. process and Registry pseudo-database. I stand by those statements, which IMO document a serious flaw in Windows Update starting with the Windows NT release and extending at least through Windows 7 to which I can attest. I don’t have sufficient experience with subsequent major Windows releases to know if the problems continue, but from the large number of similar threads I have examined on this and other Windows Update forums, it would appear that they do. Unfortunately, IMO, those postings appear have been removed from this thread.
Other than my disappointment expressed in the last sentence in the preceding paragraph, Sysnative.com has proven its merit to me. Many hours of volunteered expert effort was expended to keep my Windows 7 system alive until MS casts us out of the nest on January 2020 or thereabouts. Sysnative.com people are indeed worthy of your support through contributions to maintaining this effort, which is why I am a contributor.
It is time to mark this thread SOLVED and freeze further posting, but I hope it stays “alive” in a read-only state for its valuable lessons in Windows Internals.