What's happening now? Is my chinese arduino clone just not going to work one day because I'm using a Windows PC and it updates itself?
Not exactly. Your stuff could indeed stop working due to automated updates. You will then need to install the latest driver manually to make it work again. I depends on what exact version your driver is being updated to, automatically.
2.12.10 works ok (I have tested that)
2.12.11 Unknown
2.12.12 does not work with the ICs that have that date code mentioned in my post from yesterday. (I can confirm for 1549 and 1550)
2.12.13 - 2.12.15: Unknown
2.12.16 should work fine, according to FTDI
2.12.17 shoud also work, since previous driver works, according to FTDI
2.12.18 (current driver at 01. July 2016) works ok again (I am currently using that one)