Windows Update Forever

This morning, Thursday 5/14/2015, your Windows computer may hang during boot up, while displaying a message:  “Stage 3 of 3 Preparing to configure Windows. Do not turn off your computer.”

Then it will proceed to configure updates as long as it takes for Godot to arrive at the park (ie forever).

Normally you should NEVER power off your computer during an update, as admonished by Windows itself, as it could cause the computer to be unusable.  However only in this instance, if you're stuck, I'm going to advise simply restarting your PC.  First try Ctrl-Alt-Delete and see if you can reboot.  Only if you have no luck there, press and hold your power button for a few seconds until your PC shuts off.  Wait a few more seconds before powering back on, and it should boot up in a more typical fashion.

I believe this may be an issue with some .NET files updated on Windows 7 computers.  Regardless, don't take this as general advice, but for today, you gotta do what you gotta do.  Note, perform these actions at your own peril.  If this blows up your computer, it's on you.  However I'm available at my standard rate for support.  :)