Really hosed

I tried to install office 2007 on my new Inspiron 1525 and got an install error.  I am googled the error (sorry, did not write it down) and it appears to be related to net framework.  So I went into windows featutes to be sure it was turned om - can't get into windows features, can't get  an uninstall list in ad/remove programs, can't do windows updates, and who knows what else.

I tried running sfc \scannow as an administrator (the pc does not have multiple user accounts). and I get a "Windows Resource Protection could not perform the requested operation" error.

I'm not saying the Office install had anything to do with this - just brought the problem to light.  I know I was able to run Windows update when I first turned the thing on as few weeks ago, but I can't bring up the list of installed updates to see when the last one was.

When I say I can't perform these functions, I get no error, just get back a blank window as if there is nothing to display.

Any help would be appreciated.