Nope, no worm or malware, just an automated windows reboot. There was a dialog box saying Windows had to reboot, and it was counting down. I saw it when it had a minute left.
It was at that point I realised I was not in control of my own machine. And I switched to Linux the next day.
Kept a dual boot of Windows for years, but hardly ever booted into it once I got comfortable.
I must've read too much into you mentioning that particular year (being of course the one with the Blaster's infamous if unintentional countdown to reboot due to XP's RPC service crashing). For me, it might've well been one of the bigger reasons why XP was also the last Windows as the main OS on my home computers.
Yeah, just a normal windows thing for me. If it had just been malware I'd probably have just installed a better anti virus and firewall or something. It was the fact that my own computer was working against me that soured me on Windows.
It was at that point I realised I was not in control of my own machine. And I switched to Linux the next day.
Kept a dual boot of Windows for years, but hardly ever booted into it once I got comfortable.