I posted this fix four hours ago. A lot of people have
this problem.

This problem is likely related to the lovsan worm, which
is currently infecting PCs running Windows world-wide. An
explanation of what it is and the link to a Microsoft
patch can be found on the McAfee Web site.

I used this patch and the problems I had with the
svchost.exe error have been fixed.

Click link below.

http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp?
id=description&virus_k=100547
..

Thanks for the fix Rick,
I followed your advise, ran the mcafee free stinger
application on my machine, and all now seems fine.
Seems like a REALLY widespread virus !!
Cheers,
Stephen