Brute force way..

Control Panel\System and Security\Administrative Tools\Services

Windows update, set to disabled.

I too have not experienced any issues with the last round of updates.
In control Panel/Programs and Features, you can turn on Show Updates. you may be able to uninstall the recent or selected updates or perhaps you could use System Restore to go to an earlier time: this will tell you what's going on.

So now we have a thread stating Beware of Windows updates, causing two dozen further people down the line to start believing mythical bogey-men are causing their problems when Windows updates were again not the issue here.
 
...and so it goes.
 
Indeed 'beware of Windows updates' but good policy allowing you to roll back completely to before you had problems is still good policy and doesn't promote mis-information.
 
I'm sorry I can't help with your issue at this time but hopefully my comments will cause somebody to benefit from the preventative measure that will relieve them from similar headaches to the one you are currently having.
System restore doesn't cut it and in any case an image takes less time to do than a system restore.
 
http://disk-image.com/

I installed updates for the first time in months on Sunday. The first time I tried to open a project after that, X2 crashed. I tried it in X1... same deal. I then went back to X2 and opened the project in Safe mode and disabling all the plugins. That worked, so I went through one at a time disabling the plugins and found that it was the very last one, a Frank's Midi Plugin.  I deleted it and went on my merry way.

Then it happened again today. Not feeling like going through that god-awful manual process again, I decided to just reimage using a backup I created a couple weeks ago. Hopefully that resolves the issue. I'm at work now, so I won't be able to test it till tonight. 

Although I can't say with absolute certainty that it was one of the updates that caused the problem, it's the only thing that changed on my computer prior to the project no longer working.

I concur that a massive 13 files Windows 7 update on 11/14/2012 has made my normally hyper-fast computer slow and sluggish. Even something as simple as shutting down the computer now takes much, much longer. In the past, shutting down would take 5 seconds or less. Now, the Windows 7 "shutting down..." screen sits there for over a minute before finally shutting down.

I haven't been brave enough to install X2 yet, but I can tell you that X1 is running more erratically than before the Windows update, but there is no one recurring problem with X1, as far as I can tell.

I have not had any problems with the last update.

Perhaps not of interest, but some Windows Updates will NGen after install. So, by this I mean create a native image for your hardware...

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/6t9t5wcf(v=vs.80).aspx

It doesn't have to be a .Net app for the installer to try to create a hardware specific image of an exe for you, and this can burn your processor a little. If you already run hot, it could cause a few drop outs within the immediate window after the updates as the Services NGen in the background.

This doesn't always happen, but it might. This is one of the reasons I let my laptop install software in the dark of night (3 AM or whatever). Then, when I get up in the morning, there's no waiting. All the work is done.

If there is a problem, roll back to the restore point.

My method is to let win update download; but then I install. This way if there is a reboot needed because the updates are to files in use, you can see what was successful or not. Then you can try and reinstall the unsuccessful updates again and this often times results in success. Microsoft say that updates can fail because of the order of install or one update relies on another update to be successful. Sometimes you need to reboot before you can successfully install the updates that failed. Haphazard updating can be the cause of problems either after the install or further down the track. Don’t Microsoft staff have a name for updates like”Panic Tuesday”.
 

Marcus Curtis


I have not had any serious issues until the updates were installed and the computer wanted to reboot. I had no idea that windows was updating itself. I turned automatic updates off. I don't know how it got turned back on again...ahhh the mysteries of buggy software.

Now I am waiting for the next update and I hope it is soon. stupid windows updates It hijacked my computer as well.

 
 
I would never have turned on my windows updates to "download and install automatically", but somehow I've also just noticed they are back on ?
Perhaps a windows update turned this back on ?
 
I regularly update windows, and also have not experienced any issues related to Sonar X2 or anything else on my system.
 
+1 for keeping a complete system image backup, which I do monthly.
For this I use the windows 7 backup, which now includes all system data, and software installed, for a complete restore.

Just the other day Windows installed a bucket load of updates,and I v'e had no real issues[laptop] except,a buss panned hard right wasn't showing any signal on the metering,in X2.

I thought it was me,as Iv'e been fooling,around with "extra" busses,just for the heck of it,but I saved and closed X2,and when I re-opened,the buss meter started showing signal.

About a day before the updates,I was listening to one of my own songs on soundcloud,and when it got to the solo,the laptop violently BSOD'ed,and started screaming,like a cat sort of,and would not stop,until I removed the battery,which was a hassle as I have dual USB fan "duct taped" to the bottom,it was very weird.

I had to go out and came back,booted up,no drama,then the Windows updates,and then I started working in X2.

That's about it as far as problems with X2 lately,and I let Windows update do "it's thing",always have,I probably won't stop now.


Though that's only the second Blue Screen for this lappy,I think the dust maybe building up,that screaming noise is still haunting me though!

Bob