Windows Update making computer unusuable - over 90% RAM usage

My parents have an Acer 5742 laptop with 2GB of RAM (Windows 7 Computer properties reports 1.7GB usable). Every day they complain that the computer is unusable for half an hour or more, usually when they first start it. 'Unusable' means that it's so bogged down that most programs won't start, not even Windows Explorer and it takes some time even to get Task Manager to start. Programs already started don't respond for 30 seconds or so to even a single click.

I've investigated the problem with Task Manager and Process Explorer and it's pretty clear that all the RAM is being used up (Task Manager reports 92-94% Physical Memory use). Process Explorer shows that the svchost.exe instance which has wuauclt.exe (Windows Update) as a sub-process is the culprit, with RAM usage for this svchost.exe being 750MB-1GB.

Is there anyway to stop Windows Update going crazy like this every day? Would creating a bigger swap file help?

WU eats up RAM every time it searches for updates. I've set mine to never look for updates as I can do it manually every now and then. Folks should be pretty safe with MSE installed.

Yeah, the problem is if I set it to manual they'll never remember to do it :)

With MSE, there isn't even a need to "update". Updating just prevents the infection from getting on your system. MSE prevents the infection from running. With MSE, most viruses and trojans are as good as if they never existed on the system...

Do you mean MS Security Essentials? That's not a substitute for updates so isn't a good solution here.

Surely others have hit this kind of problem on computers with 2GB RAM - was there anything you could do to make it work reasonably?

Try these:

Troubleshoot Application Conflicts by Performing a Clean Startup

Optimize Windows 7

Clean Up Factory Bloatware

Clean Reinstall - Factory OEM Windows 7

Thanks, I had a look through that but the problem here is Windows Update itself, and not some pre-installed crapware other software that runs on boot or another time. I did enable ReadyBoost though using a spare USB stick though, just in case it helps.

I've also changed the Windows update settings to run at 9pm, which should be when they're not using the computer usually.

Thanks for replying, here's the log file