Security :: Windows Firewall And BFE Cannot Be Started - Access Denied

Following a recent Windows Update, Windows Firewall on my Windows 8 system was disabled. Upon attempting to start the firewall through the services.msc dialog, I receive an error code 1068, informing that the dependency service or group failed to start. After doing some googling to attempt to resolve the issue I found the dependency service, the Base Filtering Engine (BFE) was not active. When attempting to start the BFE service, I am stopped with an error 5, indicating that access is denied.

I am unable to figure out why access to the BFE service should be denied, since this account is the only account on the computer and has administrator privileges. Because of these issues with the firewall, I am unable to access the internet and am creating this thread through a separate laptop computer.

In a potentially related issue, Windows is not "activated", though I had activated it approximately a year earlier. Because of this, I am unable to access my Microsoft Office programs. I believe that I am unable to activate windows due to a lack of internet connectivity caused by the above firewall issue.

My next step is to take the computer into a nearby service depot and pay the requisite charges.