What do these Microsoft Updates do, and why can't they configure correctly?

"Either a Google search or a search of support.microsoft.com for the knowledge base article number will reveal the reason for it being installed.

For example, KB976098 is December 2009 cumulative time zone update for Microsoft Windows operating systems. So if you search for each of the patches that were installed you might find one that's to do with SQL Express.

Beyond that I can't really offer anything else."