Microsoft systems crash following update

Microsoft is warning users to scan their machines for malware following a recent string of system crashes.

The company said that one of the patches included in Tuesday's monthly update was potentially causing a conflict with certain malware infections on Windows XP systems.

When installing the MS 10-015 patch, which addresses a vulnerability in the Windows kernel, the infected systems experienced the infamous "blue screen of death" system crash.

In order to avoid the crash, Microsoft is advising users to scan their systems with a trusted, up-to-date antivirus tool.

The news first surfaced Thursday when the company disclosed reports on its security response blog of system crashes with the February update. The issue was later traced to the MS 10-015 bulletin and eventually found to be from a malware infection.

"One of the key components when investigating issues like this are obtaining memory dumps from computers experiencing the problem," wrote senior security communications manager Jerry Bryant.

"In order to get the information we need to fully analyse the issue, some of our support engineers have actually driven to customer locations and picked up affected systems so we can get the needed crash data directly and help inform our investigation."