Happy wife, happy life!
That's why I always tell my friends; "you can be right, or you can be happy!"
 
But seriously, run memtest.
But be forewarned; 32gb is going to run for awhile.
I always run it overnight.
T

Thanks for that bit of info, Tom.
"If mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy......." I have a pal who seems to say that a lot..
Michael

Wow, mine did the same thing today. I couldn't open any folders and it took forever to restart, then appears OK...I automatically run full hardware diagnostics monthly and all is fine, nothing newly installed, it's a gmail and Sonar pc exclusively and has been running perfectly. I am Win 7 and I don't think there was a backup last night (3am). I'm holding my breath and running a fresh backup.

Oops, there it is, it just appeared, the icon for new updates, that's what it was. MS doing it's own thing for hours and scaring an old man half to death. I'm still going to back up even tho I know I'm all backed up...

Good luck! All has calmed down here, too. No issues since....

I just noticed today that a fresh version of the Win10 Anniversary Update version 1607 was lurking in my updates.  I have held off on that (hidden), still running the fall update from 2015, Win 10 version 1511.
 
I hid the update again, but it does leave me to wonder that if updates are allowed, and Microsoft re-issues an update does that mean it gets applied?
 
Bottom line, I wonder if your issues were temporarily related to an MS feature update that was running?

Could very well have been that, abacab. I am rarely at her PC, so I don't know any specifics RE updates, but will ask her.
 
Michael

abacab
I just noticed today that a fresh version of the Win10 Anniversary Update version 1607 was lurking in my updates.  I have held off on that (hidden), still running the fall update from 2015, Win 10 version 1511.
 
I hid the update again, but it does leave me to wonder that if updates are allowed, and Microsoft re-issues an update does that mean it gets applied?
 
Bottom line, I wonder if your issues were temporarily related to an MS feature update that was running?

i haven't let windows 10 update since july, staying on 1511, mainly because i thought my audio interfaces may stop working (old, but good), but also because of reported issues etc, recently i was reading that you would only experience problems with hardware/drivers(unsigned) if it was a new install of anniversary update or later, and wouldn't affect an existing installation that was updated with unsigned drivers already installed etc, i hadn't realized that in the past. so after seeing the dust has mostly settled with issues people have been having with recent windows 10 updates my curiosity got the better of me, i let this laptop update 2 days ago, everything was fine, so i decided to make a backup image of my #2 daw, then let it update, all good, no problems, audio interface still works, just required a re authorization for a few plugins. so i then made a backup image of my #1 daw, let it update, again all good, audio interface all good (same as the one for #2 daw)no issues apart from the same need to re auth a few plugins. gave them a good going over, disabled the cortana stuff and a few things, seems as stable, fast and compatible as 1511, so i am happy with that, all machines are now happily on the latest 1607 . of course i have since disabled windows 10 updates again until if and when i decide to update again, maybe next year :)

I can appreciate the cautious approach, Grim. I don't usually think of it, but maybe I ought to....
Michael