svchost.exe - application error

If you get this error:

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
svchost.exe - application error
The instruction at "0x745f2780" referenced memory at "0x00000000". The memory could not be "read".
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

And also a error dialog about "Generic Host process for Win32 services", then do this to resolve the problem:

1. Boot into safe mode
2. Disable automatic updates in Windows
3. Reboot system into normal mode
4. Do a manual Windows update
5. Enable automatic updates in Windows
4. Reboot once again


It looks like a recent Windows auto-update messed things up and Windows kept giving the above error on startup. I got this error this morning and was in "safe mode" till I found the above solution.

I actually found "safe mode with networking" much faster and better than the regular "unsafe" mode of Windows. More about that later. :-)