Early reports of July patches that are causing problems indicate that KB917537 may be faulty.  These reports that I have seen seem to be more about getting it to install than crashing machines.

You could try uninstalling that particular patch (if it was installed) and see if the errors stop.

according to eventviewer, those patches were ready to be installed but not actually installed.

something is wrong with the windows installer?

When this happen to me Microsoft said to do the following
Feel free to use case number if need I never closed it
RCT

WINDOWS UPDATES BUT DOES NOT INSTALL
1. Click Start->Run, type "services.msc" (without quotation marks) in the open box and click OK.
2. Double click the service "Automatic Updates".
3. Click on the Log On tab, please ensure the option "Local System account" is selected and the option "Allow service to interact with desktop" is unchecked.

4. Check if this service has been enabled on the listed Hardware Profile. If not, please click the Enable button to enable it.
5. Click on the tab "General "; make sure the "Startup Type" is "Automatic". Then please click the button "Start" under "Service Status" to start the service.
6. Repeat the above steps with the other service: Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS)

Step 4: Re-register Windows Update components and Clear the corrupted Windows Update temp folder
================================

1. Click on Start and then click Run,
2. In the open field type "REGSVR32 WUAPI.DLL" (without quotation marks) and press Enter.
3. When you receive the "DllRegisterServer in WUAPI.DLL succeeded" message, click OK.
4. Please repeat these steps for each of the following commands:

REGSVR32 WUAUENG.DLL
REGSVR32 WUAUENG1.DLL
REGSVR32 ATL.DLL
REGSVR32 WUCLTUI.DLL
REGSVR32 WUPS.DLL
REGSVR32 WUPS2.DLL
REGSVR32 WUWEB.DLL

After the above steps are finished. Sicne temporary folder of Windows Update may be corrupted. We can refer to the following steps to rename this folder that

1. Click Start, Run, type: cmd and press Enter. Please run the following command in the opened window.

net stop WuAuServ

2. Click Start, Run, type: %windir% and press Enter.
3. In the opened folder, rename the folder SoftwareDistribution to SDold.
4. Click Start, Run, type: cmd and press Enter. Please run the following command in the opened window.

net start WuAuServ

Please check if you receive any error when trying to re-register these components. If not, please try to visit the Windows Update site again.

Windows Update case SRZ060207002222.

thanks, rct99403. no problem re-registering those dll but when i go to windows update, it failed. it said there's some problem with the website and it cannot display your page. at that point the svchost.exe error pops up again and freezes the computer.

ok go to a command prompt go to run and type in CMD, after that type netsh winsock reset it will reset your IP stacks and you should be good to go. Also there is a virus that looks alot like WGA so you might want to update your virus protection and scan
RCT

The issue of a problem with the website / cannot display the page, etc is discussed several times here:  http://groups-beta.google.com/group/microsoft.public.windowsupdate

I followed the sequence provided by microsoft, but I could not rename "Software Distribution". Says, it was in use, full, or write protected. Tried resetting properties to no avail.

What link refers to "Software Distribution"?  Have you tried using Safe Mode to do whatever you are attempting to do?

Click Start, Choose Run.
In the Run box, type: services.msc
Click OK.
Right-click the Automatic Updates service.
Click Stop.

Stopping the service will take a moment.

Now rename the "SoftwareDistribution" folder:

a) Click Start, click Run, type
%systemroot%
...and then click OK.

b) Right-click the SoftwareDistribution folder, and then click Rename.

c) Type SoftwareDistribution.old and then press ENTER to rename this folder.

Now click Start, and choose Run.
In the Run box, type: services.msc
Click OK.
Right-click the Automatic Updates service.
Click Start.

Starting the service will take a moment.

NB - You will lose your update download history but this is not that important compared to not being anle to download the updates!

Now Try WU website again.

____________________________
Users Helping Users

oh my, it's happening again. i tried what rct99403 suggested back in July and everything was fine for a few months, now, the same thing is happening!!! i followed the steps again and the computer has been OK for an hour now. hmm... i disabled automatic updates. but this will be a pain if it happens to more computers and i have to manually patch them every month.

any suggestion?

thanks.

same thing happening here... got 3rd computer doing that today, after receiving the error couple of services stop includin Server and Workstation, doing what rct99403 suggested didnt help, disabling the Updates does solve so far but thats a half-assed solution. anybody know how to deal with it or at least why it's happening please do tell.

thanks

AntonKouzoub,

Are you saying that you have 3 computers that have just started displaying -

1) svchost.exe -- application error
the instruction at "0x745f2780" reference memory at "0x00000000" . the memory could not be 'read'

2) generic host process for win32 service has encountered a problem and needs to close.

Not sure as to any reason that has not been covered by the comments above.  But I would point out that Microsoft have just started to release a patch or update for Windows Genuine Advantage.  I wonder whether you have that fact as the cause, or maybe it is just a coincidence?

http://www.theregister.com/2007/02/20/wga_changes_today/  

Microsoft has a fix for this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927891

Here is the fix I found from Microsoft, put out 2-10-2007

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931852/en-us
SYMPTOMS
When you start a Microsoft Windows XP-based computer, you receive the following error message:
Generic Host Process for Win32 Services has encountered a problem and needs to close.
Additionally, when you try to download Windows Updates on this computer, you receive the following error message:
Svchost.exe application error. The instruction at "Ox745f2780" referenced memory at 0x00000000000000. The memory could not be read.