Also had it since last November

Same here... I found that the quickest way to gain control back on my laptop is to do this:

Run->cmd

net stop winmgmt

net start winmgmt

If you ask me, this looks a little too suspiciously like a typical micro$haft attempt at forcing people to upgrade their computers/OS to the latest incarnation - They probalby didn't unleash this particular one on purpose but given the time it's been out there it's clearly not been their #1 priority to fix it...