Troubleshoot svchost.exe and/or Generic Host
Processes crashes
Microsoft has recognized this as a problem with the Automatic Updates service,
but haven't released a "working" patch for the issue.
But here's a fix!
Download my homemade WUFIX.zip
This ZIP contains 3 files:
One batch file (wufix.bat) to stop the necessary services for removing the
faulty Windows Update DLLs
Another batch file (reloadwu.bat) to reinstall the Windows Update Agent with the
included
installer file (WindowsUpdateAgent20-x86.exe).
Additionally you can isolate the Automatic Update process to run in its own
svchost.exe instance.
Use SC (which can be found in Windows xP/2003) to change the configuration of a
service, including the "service type" - "shared" or "own".
So, using wuauserv as a guinea pig, one could execute from a CMD prompt
to cause the service to run in its
own process:
sc config wuauserv type= own
The Automatic Update service will need to be restarted for this to take effect.
To change it back to a shared service, use the following command:
sc config wuauserv type= share
NOTE: In both commands, the space after
the '=' character is critical. For the change back to "shared" to take effect,
the system will need to be rebooted as the "original" SVCHOST group that this
service was a part of is already running.