In this case it was Crowdstrike which is mainly used by larger companies, but it is possible that a general Windows update could do the same thing and would have a much larger impact. The same thing could happen with other devices (phones etc) that receive automatic updates.

The Crowdstrike issue basically did prevent further updates as the system wouldn’t boot until someone who had physical access could boot into safe mode and delete the problematic file. Recoverable but a lot of work for IT departments..

The other thing this issue demonstrated is that there are a lot of systems running Windows that would probably be better off using some sort of cut down Linux distribution. Things like electronic billboards etc should not need Windows with Crowdstrike..