Reinstallation is not the only way. I had this problem on a fresh install on a VM, meaning reinstalling would have resulted in exactly the same problem. The only way is to remove it and literally install a newer version of Windows, i.e. one with the offending update already incorporated.
I actually worked through an issue like this on 7, took about a day, and only after I found the correct directions online. There was an update that broke update, that’s when I turned off win update. The only reason I use the machine is to rdp to work because I couldn’t get the Linux vpn client to work, I’ll have to revisit that.