Vista Won't Complete Updates or Cancel

One of my work laptops has just been upgraded and I'm now forced to run the
Very Incompetently designed, STupidly implemented operAting system
(VISTAsucks) on that laptop. Fortunately, all of my other computers are
remaining XP for the time being.

Among all the other problems, updater software (e.g., Windows Update) tends
to hang. The software will not complete and I can't get rid of the update
window, no matter what I do in Task Manager. In addition, once an update
hangs, Internet Explorer hangs. The only solution is to reboot.

Note that the updates don't always hang, just mostly hang. They definitely
hang if the update attempts to run when the computer is in sleep mode or if
the disk drive is powered down when the update is supposed to start.
However, even with the computer plugged in and my power settings specifying
no shut down of anything (not even the screen) while plugged in, the updates
will usually fail. They tend to be more reliable, but not anything
approaching "reliable", if I manually start the update.

Anybody have any ideas on what the problem might be?


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Chaos, panic, & disorder - my work here is done.