svchost eating up all cpu resources

now this is ridiculous! when i boot my laptop, it hangs for several minutes: svchost.exe process uses almost all 100% of CPU utilization.
it turns out that it's Windows Update "feature" in the act.
my solution was simple -- look up "Automatic Updates" service in your Services list and change it's startup option to manual. that should do it.

full coverege of the problem here, with links to Microsoft KB and stuff.