Microsoft released what they called a “fix” to prevent this very thing from happening but it didn’t take on some systems and the problem persisted. The problem revolves around what Microsoft calls the “svchost/msi” issue in which svchost.exe and its various processes will use 100% of the processor during update scans or downloads.

The simple solution for this is to turn off automatic updates on Windows XP and 2003 systems; Vista does not appear to be affected by this flaw (for once). If you don’t want to deactivate Windows Update then you might try using this patch from Microsoft, but as with all things Microsoft who knows what other problems it will cause.

In addition to the patch you will need to install the stand alone Windows Server Update Services (WSUS) 3.0 package. However that requires the download, extraction and installation of a CAB (cabinet) file a tedious process that I would skip if the patch fixes the problem.

Some users have done both on affected systems and the problem did not go away. I’m not sure all their programmers know what really caused the problem in the first place, I have one computer that has this problem and I do wish it would go away. If I were a betting man I would say it could be traced back to a faulty update released a while go but trying to figure out which one is like looking for a specific needle in a stack of needles.

ComputerWorld has rounded up several comments on various blogs with one person saying “I have 6 (and counting) computers having issues with SVCHOST process running at near 100% CPU utilization disabling Automatic Updates resolves the issue. What did Microsoft just release?”

Now we’re just back to disabling Windows Update. My advice is to apply the patch, if it works, great, if not turn off Windows Update but if you can abide the 100% processor usage for a few minutes, updates can always be run manually.  Of course some systems don’t take so great to 100% processor usage and may lock up.