Windows update weekly torment

[Digeroo]

Once a week my computer forces a shut down, whether I want it or not, right in the middle of whatever I am doing.  It will open my previous sessions plus 25 extra IE copies but normally crashes within ten minutes forcing a switch off.  When it opens again it has usually forgotton all my log in details, and has opened another 25 copies of Internet Explorer.  And each time it happens it seem to work slower and slower afterwards.   It was really nippy when I bought it but no more,

And if I am part the way through an A4A PM or reply to a thread I loose it totally.   I am trying to keep a log of pass words, but if they are held on my computer I consider that a security risk.  I am getting tired of habitually resetting passwords.

Does anyone know how to stop it?   Why does it open multiply copies of IE and is there any way of deleting them en masse?

Does anyone else suffer from this torture?

[Digeroo]

[pg]

Not totally sure why this is happening without more info but could just be that there's a lot of temporary files and left-overs filling your system so when the computer tries to work hard it falls over.

Have you tried doing a Disk Degragment (under Control Panel, Performance and Maintenance)? I also use CCleaner regularly (free to download) to get rid of temporary files that don't always disappear on a reboot.

[Digeroo]

Seems my computer does a regular defrag.   Maybe this is why it sometimes is on a go slow.  To busy filing to do any work.

[antipodes]

That doesn't really sound right. Do you have an anti virus? I think I would do a scan. and a malware scan too.

Why not switch to Firefox? You can get it to save your passwords and you use a master password to keep them safe. I gave up IE a long time ago as a lost cause. If you just keep "harmless" passwords, for various sites, there is little risk. Thieves are really looking for banking details or logins to sites where you have payments cards attached.

[BarriedaleNick]

Yes it sounds off to me too!

I would run malwarebytes http://www.malwarebytes.org  the free version is fine. Ccleaner is a good idea too.  http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
Make sure your AV is running and up to date.  If you dont have AV the head for Microsoft Security Essentials http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows/security-essentials-download

PCs randomly reboot for a variety of reasons - overheating, software corruption, malware but the IE opening sounds malware like to me.  I am not quite sure of the order that things occur from your post and it could be that IE has become corupt.  Get your PC scanned by malwarebytes, Ccleaner and your AV.
If you still have issues then maybe resetting IE or reistalling it would be an option.
I agree that Firefox or Crome are better browsers - try also using one for a period of time and seeing how you go and see if your PC behavess - Firefix is here https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/

[Digeroo]

Norton says everything is ok. 

Done a full scan and its happy.   But is wants to restart, and when it finally does, it will loose all my passwords and I will have to input them all again.

[BarriedaleNick]

I wouldn't trust Norton on it's own - still run malwarebytes and ccleaner.
I just fixed up a laptop with Norton on it and malwarebytes found over 400 instances of malware - laptop was unusable but scans with those two progs sorted it - also I removed Norton and replaced it with Microsoft Security Essentials!!

[100mph]

Try editing the settings of Windows Update (if you can't find it in Control Panel then Google it with reference to your Windows version).
Almost certainly WU is set to 'Install Updates Automatically' so change it to 'Check for Updates but let me choose wether to download and install them'. When new updates are available you'll be prompted to select and install from a list - at least make sure on each occasion you get the High Priority ones.