Win7 Freezes after Installing Updates

My computer automatically installed updates and shut down overnight. I had left it on while it ran through producing a video. When I restarted this morning and went to open a folder to see if the vid file had been created, I received a message saying the file could not be opened. I also noticed that the wireless connection did not automatically start up.

I rebooted twice and found the same problem: unable to open programs, folders, files. I most recently rebooted again and just let it sit a while. Tried to access a program; was not able to. After a while I got a dialog box saying that Windows was not working, did I want to close - clicked no. Noticed that the wireless connection icon came up. Then I left to come back to work and post this.

Only significant recent changes to system was installation of ashampoo Winoptimizer 7. Have run cleanup utility and defrag several times, with noticeable improvement in startup and processing times.

Any thoughts on a) what might have happened (so it doesn't happen again), and b) what the problems is and what I can do to correct it?

Thanks so much for any help.

When your title says "after installing updates" I take it you mean Windows Updates?

Some people are having issues with KB2454826 which came this week. Might be worth looking into.

Yes, I do mean Windows Updates. Thanks for the information . . . how would I go about looking into it?

Google something like "problems after installing KB2454826" here's one post I just found but I can't remember my google "phrasing" from earlier today now (senility!). But I did find quite a few.

If you think it may be your problem then uninstall it. If you find it isn't the problem just re-install again.