Joe, I don't think it is related to MSE, I see nothing to indicate such.
Davehc, I don't think a refresh is involved in the situation, but I do so much testing, it could be. I did have, at one time, a dual boot set up with Windows 8.1, but I have no reason to suspect that situation.
I found that if a file, SvcRestartTask, in the directory below shows as 4 K (3.54 K) the problem occurs. If the file is good, it should show as 5 K (4.67 K) so I checked two of my backup images for the same file. My latest image has the smaller bad file but an earlier image has the larger file.
C: \Windows\System32\Tasks\Microsoft\Windows\SoftwareProtectionPlatform
To correct the problem, I imported the Task from another system. And that is...