Microsoft WUAUCLT.EXE update process help!

Lately, on an XP SP3 desktop, at boot this is jumping to some 500k of RAM usage, thus running my 1G of RAM to 90% with all the other processes running. Avast 5 (free) and Windows Defender are the other security apps that run real time. Has anyone else noticed this lately? Thank You!

 

500k or 500 MB? Well, this issue was reported in various other blogs and forums recently, I have also experienced this and so did a lot users after the last MS Update. So far the problem persists, below is one such thread:

http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vistawu/thread/f8aec5e9-2f04-44c3-9e67-8f46a38b8d37

This update process and related svchost.exe (I forgot if thats BITS) each took over 200 MB in my setup, rendering my 702 MB RAM almost helpless.

 

Thank you for the reply! The "k" was meant as 1,000 as in 500,000 kb.

 

Yes, I just noticed it too. Really shows up on an older laptop with only 512 MB RAM!!! Talk about needing a swap file!

I am upgrading the laptop to 1 GB with the hopes this will make things liveable again. A 15 minute boot time (this is how long before the PC is useable) is insane!!!