Yes, I agree on your comments.
IF this is about VMware VM-computer version, you might want to change this, since this is a pretty simple and quick way. Here is one link how to do it. You may need to install Workstation Pro Evaluation version in order to do this (good for 30 days). The link is not exactly for your versions - but carry this out on backup computers for safety. (In Windows world, use robocopy to ensure that the copy to backup media is always 100%, never use file explorer because that cannot be trusted in important cases between misc medias or network. You need to have the pointer to a VM-computer OFF in VMware software when doing this - just remove that particular VM from Library if you want to have VMware software open).
https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2128613
You are right that if your Windows computers, running Windows 10, 7 and XP all have this problem, it is unlikely that they would all had a similar update problem. While some Updates still arrive to unsupported versions, assuming that Windows is the problem is quite far-fetched, even if in theory possible.
