When you say you reformatted and reinstalled, did you delete the exisiting partition?

It sounds like you installed a fresh copy on a new partition and left the old one there.

If you only did...

I have this vague recollection that one of the Windows updates was intended to fix a vulnerability in this or a related process. I can't help wondering that if by fixing it (or trying to) something...

Something's not right. Ah well.

Are you sure that's a solution and not just sweeping it under the carpet?

Automatic updates shouldn't do that, and you would benefit more by having it turned on rather than by being forced to...