Grr...so I had to reinstall my work machine after an odd problem with my TCP/IP stack (probably caused by an inopportune disk crash during an install) - not too bad reinstalled in about 4 hours (including Office, VS etc...). Problem is that I had a couple of explorer crashes..no big deal, Off I toddled off to Windows Update; with our work connection this should be pretty quick; well long story short, the download keeps hanging, can't quit or IE shoots to 100% CPU. In comparison, my OSX machine - update has an integrated UI, one button it downloads everything it needs - doesn't hang, doesn't use the browser it's trying to update!
MS really have to get a grip of this type of thing - it's really annoying to have to install 34 critical patches and have the installer hang!