My comment may not be relevant to the root cause of the problem, but I have noticed the mention to .NET Framework 4.5.1 in the text. I don’t know if it is a typo, however it is worth saying that the only versions currently supported are 4.5.2 and 4.6.1.
While there are known issues with 4.6.1 and certain server software written by Microsoft, there are currently very few reasons if any not to upgrade to 4.5.2 and be fully supported.

P.S. .NET Framework 3.5.1 is supported too, my previous comment related to the currently supported versions of .NET Framework 4.

ch100, I’m the person in question that wrote Woody. Are you saying this could have been avoided IF 4.5.2 would have been installed previously? I find it very difficult to follow what .NET framework(s) are supposed to be installed on any given computer or OS. I’ll give you the fact that 4.5.2 is one of the only versions supported by MS, but if (and that’s a mighty big IF) one of these 4.5.1 updates mauled the “Programs and Features” list, I don’t think it matters which version is the latest. The mauling still occured; who knows if there’s a fix or not.

Will be interesting to see if anyone else had issues such as mine.

PO, I don’t know the answer, it was just a suggestion as I know that Microsoft no longer provides older versions of .NET Framework for Windows 7 on Windows Update. I was wondering if there are any new patches for 4.5.1 other than 4.5.2 and/or 4.6.1 although in the past many of them were common for all the versions belonging to the same family.
I can only guess that sometimes the MSI Installer runs in repair mode by itself on all software installed and this may have happened for an unidentified reason on your machine. Please check the Application Log under Event Viewer if you can find anything related to what I have just said above.

ch100, would I be looking for anything listed under in the Application Log that mentions “MSI Installer”? Didn’t see anything out of the ordinary in that log for 3/3 otherwise, by the way.

PO, it was just a guess, but this is how it looks like to me. The software that you mentioned was reinstalled on that particular day, probably because of another software which could be one of the .NET Framework updates or anything else running the MSI installer. Most other Windows Update patches are installed using a different mechanism. Office Update also uses the MSI installer for installing updates.
Try to check the entries for that date in the Application Log and also check the System Log for anything unusual. Normally the events that I described are not errors, but rather informational.