Windows Update always takes all day, multiple sessions, holding PC hos

I always dread when Windows 10 has updates. Every time Windows 10 has updates, Windows always holds my PC hostage until ALL and I MEAN ALL updates are fully installed. Until all updates are fully installed, Windows will heavily limit my PCs performance until literally every update is 100% installed. Even if all updates are downloaded and all Windows 10 is waiting for is a PC restart, the fact that there are updates pending, Windows 10 will constantly freeze and lag until all updates are fully installed. And when I mean all updates, if one update fails to install, even if it is something super simple and small, Windows 10 will hold my PC hostage until it is installed.

Also, Windows 10 will take all day through multiple sessions to install updates, even for very small updates. It will never install them all in one go. I am finding that I have to restart my computer upwards of eight times before all updates are installed. It will take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour to install updates every time I restart. If I am lucky, it will only require three restarts before everything is installed. But it usually takes at least five restarts before everything is installed. Windows will hold my PC hostage during this until literally everything is installed. As I said, it will take anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour PER restart with "Getting Windows Ready". "Working on Updates", and "Installing Updates" after every restart.

After all updates are 100% installed, my computer usually runs smoothly and is fine after that—but until then, my computer is always unusable.

Today is no different with Windows Update, I am already on my fourth restart and have been waiting for roughly 45 minutes now on this restart "Getting Windows Ready". It is 2:50 PM EDT and I have been dealing with today's Windows Updates since 10:45 AM EDT. This goes to show that Windows Update is taking its time, refusing to install all updates in one go, and holding my PC hostage in the process. I had to make this post on a Windows 7 machine as a result because my Windows 10 machine, an HP 17 j177nr, is out of commission for these blasted updates. I am sure it will be fine like usual after everything is installed, but until then, it is a real big hassle.

When I have things I NEED to do on my computer, I cannot wait for 6+ hours and restart my computer a dozen times when there are important things I need to do.

Why does Windows Update do this? Why does Windows hold my PC hostage until every update is fully installed? and why can't it do everything in one go? Why does it require at least five sessions before everything is installed? Is there a way to make it not hold my PC hostage when there are pending updates?

- - - Updated - - -

Update: Now it seems that today's Windows Update bricked my computer. After over an hour at "Getting Windows Ready", it went into "Restarting" and it sat at "Restarting" for more than 20 minutes. So I did what Google told me to do and that was hold the power button for 5-10 seconds to shut off the laptop.

But when I turned the laptop back on, now it ALWAYS gets stuck at the HP logo with spinning dots and it never moves beyond that. The hard drive activity light shows no sign of utilization. It is a solid white light. Usually when there is hard drive activity, the light is rapidly blinking. The Ethernet port lights up every so often.

It is obvious that the updates today caused my PC to not be able to boot. This laptop worked fine before Windows had updates. Installing these updates have now seemingly bricked my PC.

Does Microsoft not test these updates?

I do not know where you are getting that I have an Intel Atom with 2 GB RAM. I NEVER said anything like that! I SAID I had an HP Envy 17 j177nr. Those things come shipped with 8 GB RAM and a Core i7 with 8 CPUs. Mine happens to be upgraded to 16 GB RAM.

It sat at the HP logo for an hour before moving on but I am now up to seven restarts with "Getting Windows Ready" after every one. If it goes past eight restarts, it will be a new record for a Windows Update session.

It seemed okay after the sixth restart—albeit only after killing the "Windows Modules Installer Worker" service which seemed to have been stagnet running at 0% CPU and utilizing 56 MB RAM with no sign of activity. Usually when there is activity, CPU and RAM usage numbers are constantly changing, which was not the case for "Windows Modules Installer Worker". After killing the process, my computer seemed fine until I ran Final Fantasy XIV and two minutes in, HARD FREEZE with buzzing sound,will not unfreeze, MUST power off machine. I have ONLY ever had that happen a few times while streaming on Facebook Gaming. This was the first time it did this when I was NOT streaming.

Of course, as soon as the PC booted up after that, "Getting Windows Ready" for the umpteenth time! and Windows is still holding my PC hostage so apparently there are still updates not done.

I run SFC /scannow and DISM on a regular basis, nearly once a week. On Monday SFC /scannow told me "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations" which is what I receive pretty much every week when I do the scan. I just did SFC /scannow just because you said to and it still told me "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations"

I tried going into settings>check for updates and there was an error there saying that updates could not be installed and it gave an error code "error 0x800706be"

A Google search for 'Windows Update error 0x800706be' only brought up outdated 2016 results. Nothing recent.

About an hour ago, I clicked "Retry" and now update KB2267602 has been stuck "Downloading 100%" for about an hour now and it is NOT moving onto the install phase.

Also there is another update listed "KB5023695" and that one has been stuck "Installing 0%" for nearly the same hour duration. It has stayed at 0% for nearly an hour and the percentage refuses to go up.

At the same time, Windows Update continues to hold my PC hostage as there are still updates pending.