Resolved Windows updates crashing some systems repeatedly

I've had a common problem pop up on nine on XP systems so far over about the last six weeks. The caller will complain that his XP start-up hangs at the the XP logo screen, the one where the three blue dots float repeatedly across the screen. Or, it gets hung in a boot-loop.

On a couple of the systems, there was a scheduled imaging of the drive being done and I simply did a recovery using that image. On others, it was necessary to restore it to factory state.

In every one of those systems, the problem recurred within a few days. On two, it recurred twice before I turned off Windows updates. I have learned that disabling updates prevents this problem.

I think Microsoft has released a defective update; but, disabling updates isn't a good solution.

Anyone else seen this? Is there a solution?

 

Concerning antivirus, I don't remember how many were running which; but, I do know that at least two were running Microsoft Security Essentials when I got them because they were long-time customers of mine and I had installed it months ago. They were all running it after I serviced them.

Only one installed Webroot Spy Sweeper after he got it back the first time and it crashed again some days later.

 

I gave up and decided to solve this problem by simply disabling Windows Updates. Not the best solution; but, the most economical. So far, no more failures to boot into Windows on any of them.