Prolonged update sequence

My wife has W10 on her Sony Laptop. She gets updates followed by hours of just the 'dotted ring " flashing and its
bumming her out. I think her laptop will start up eventually but there must be a way of avoiding this onerous situation .

Windows Update Minitool Download Windows Update MiniTool - MajorGeeks

Turn the option to 'notify only' and do the updates with the tool when your wife isn't using the laptop , works really well for me on my slow older PC that the kids use.

Many thanks Wullail. I will get her to try it