I could not agree more with your comments about M$ update, Stuart.
In addition to 2 Windows XP machines (no longer affected apparently), I run 2 Windows 8.1 and 1 Windows Vista systems plus a number of Fedora Linux machines. The two 8.1 systems often appear to stop running or locking up, and this is usually as a result of updates which have been downloaded, but need a restart for them to install.
The Fedora systems continue working, even when updates are available, and I can choose when (or if) to install the updates, and 9 out of 10 times I can update three or four machines with multiple package updates while Windows is fannying about.
My 2 cents worth
toulouse