Yes, It's possible that the C++ part of the update is the problem.
But if it is, why didn't everyone else's copy of Carrara break when they got the update?
Why just on my computer?

One would think more people would be reporting a problem if the update broke everyone's Carrara, so most likely it did not.

I don't personally know how to revert to an older version of my operating system ... I know it creates a restore point and that it's possible ... but I don't really WANT to revert my operating system back.  For one thing, there are important security patches in those updates that I need.

What I need is for Carrara to be fixed relative to Windows 7, not Windows 7 relative to Carrara.
And I'm still not even sure that the update was the issue.