I ran into this little problem last month while running windows update on several workstations. You know that little yellow shield down by your clock in the taskbar 
? For some reason, a few workstations seemed to have locked up. When I peeked into the task manager->Processes, one of the “svchost.exe” processes were consuming 100% CPU. Coincidently, these workstations also had a fresh install of Office 2003 professional.
After MANY hours of monkeying around, I found a ‘remedy’ for this. I use that term loosely because it did work, though I don’t know if there’s a better or more proper fix. This should be performed if you have errands to run or are going to bed…. A watched pot never boils.
This can get you by and operational if you don’t have time to perform the updates:
- Go to start->run.
- Type in services.msc and hit return.
- When the services window pops up highlight the Automatic Updates service.
- Double click it.
- Change the startup type to manual, and click the stop button.
Performing the updates:
- Go to Microsoft Update.
- Run it.
- At this point the yellow update icon will show up in your taskbar again and doing any task will seem painfully slow.
- Go get coffee, or watch a movie.
- Come back and click to install any updates recommended.
- Here is where you go to bed, or go shopping.
- After a few hours the updates will complete and you will be good to go.
*If you disabled the updates as above you’ll want to return them to their original state. If you don’t you will not receive automatic updates in the future.
You can do this by opening the services window, changing the startup type back to Automatic, and clicking the start button.
Technorati Tags: svchost.exe, cpu, Windows Update
