Robert_Charlton - 7:45 am on May 25, 2012 (gmt 0)

Just go to the Windows Update site and check the box that says "Don't show this update again" for the problem updates.

bill - Either I'm not being clear enough in my description of the problem, or else I'm not understanding your reply. The Microsoft Update site wasn't where the problematic updates were being suggested, and I saw nothing there to check.

The problem appeared to be happening on my machine, where the updates, which had already been downloaded and I thought installed, weren't showing as installed. After each install, Windows (on my machine) was repeatedly prompting me to install the files again. It was not prompting me to download them.

At the Microsoft Update site, a scan indicated that there were no more Priority Updates to install, so the scan apparently was getting it right. Add/Remove programs in my Control Panel, though, wasn't showing any installations, and I didn't see any way to turn off the install suggestion. Please talk me through it, for future reference, if there is a way.

I wasn't concerned about a security issue. I was concerned about getting caught in an endless loop when I tried to shut down or reboot my machine. It happened to me once a few years ago.

I gathered from the MS threads that KB2604092 was a replacement for these three files, and that something was out of sync (more clear now than then). Some discussion on the first of the two above-cited Microsoft Answers threads suggested that the problem might be related to the registry. This apparently has been a long recurring problem.

At a certain point on May 22 the shield stopped appearing, for me and many others. I don't know what kind of button Microsoft may have pushed.

I'm seeing in Add/Remove programs on my machine that KB2604092 had been installed on May 10, and the only thing that was installed on May 22 was something called Windows PowerShell. Page 8 on the second Microsoft Answers thread suggests the problem was a fairly widespread. Amazingly, I can find no official word from MS about this.