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.

Windows 10 kb2538242 loop