Vicious circle...700800C1 and %1 is not a valid win32 application

I have Vista Home Premium and have had problems since the begining. When
trying to download various softwares I get the ____ is not a valid win32
application, or have also received %1 is not a valid win32 application. This
has happened several times so all the files cannot be corrupted.

When researching this I figured I would start with the service pack only to
find that I cannot download the updates due to 800700C1. Found some fixes
for that, one being smipi.dll but when trying to overwrite this file and give
myself ownership I got the %1 win32 error. I am very frustrated and have
wasted so much time on this. Brand new Dell laptop. Any thoughts to keep me
from having a bonfire in the front yard?

Thanks,
Heidi

Heidi,
Let's hope this easy step works:

Start | type CMD.EXE | right-click on CMD.EXE in the Program list directly
above | select Run as Administrator | type SFC /SCANNOW | type EXIT when
finished | reboot

Karl

"Heidi" <> wrote in message
news:9E8ADA84-C5D5-4DE9-A9FC-...
>I have Vista Home Premium and have had problems since the begining. When
> trying to download various softwares I get the ____ is not a valid win32
> application, or have also received %1 is not a valid win32 application.
> This
> has happened several times so all the files cannot be corrupted.
>
> When researching this I figured I would start with the service pack only
> to
> find that I cannot download the updates due to 800700C1. Found some fixes
> for that, one being smipi.dll but when trying to overwrite this file and
> give
> myself ownership I got the %1 win32 error. I am very frustrated and have
> wasted so much time on this. Brand new Dell laptop. Any thoughts to keep
> me
> from having a bonfire in the front yard?
>
> Thanks,
> Heidi