I have seen various references to fixes that others have used on what seems to be not an uncommon problem after all, though have not tried them all because I have no way to tell if the underlying cause was the same or different, in which case a fix might do more harm than good I think.

I am not at all knowledgeable about how computers/Windows operate, perhaps partly because I won't see my 60th birthday again, but I have tried to research this fault because it seemed reasonable to me that a user should be able to fix an update operation, which is an everyday function of Windows. It is completely pointless starting anything or trying to continue with something that was interrupted, if all there is is a reducing 15 minute countdown before having to stop/interrupt again! Very frustrating!! I generally save/close everything and do it manually just to get it done, and hope for a 4-hour option on restart however there can be up to 8 or 9 more greyed-out restarts before that is offered. Whenever I can, I take the postpone 4 hours option, though 75% of the time the postpone option is greyed out and there is simply a 15 minute countdown to an auto-restart that I can either await or restart manually. Since then however I have had to restart between 10 and 20 times a day just to be able to carry on, so sequence-updating is not the cause. Initially I had thought that an overnight update which had been reported ('do not switch off, installing updates, 1 of 25') simply included a number of updates that needed to be completed individually before the system was able to continue with the rest in sequence. When I restart, the same thing then happens again, and then that next-time also, and every time thereafter!

Whenever I start the computer, the Windows Update window opens requesting a restart in order to install important updates. I need assistance to resolve a very frustrating problem that began around 3 weeks ago but is now beyond my ability to explore further. Win 7 Home Premium, private sole user, no significant new soft/hardware installation in the subject timeframe, no other issues, system generally runs problem-free.

Kb2538242 win 10