Stuck on "configuring Windows updates" screen after crash

My compute shut off unexpectedly; I suspect a hardware malfunction. But I haven't really been able to properly test that because I can't get windows to finish booting.

When I turned my computer back on the next day, it was stuck on an update screen.
It spend a very long time on the screen saying "configuring windows updates," and after reaching 100% it was stuck there for hours.
I eventually forced it to restart since it was stuck. And now it's going through that exact same process. It says it's configuring windows updates. It's currently at 35%, where it has been for an abnormally long amount of time, and I suspect that it is going to be on this screen forever until I shut it off.

I do still have the prompt to boot into safe mode when I restart it, so I can go inside and try to fix things, but I have no idea what I should try to fix. Please help.

More info:
I cannot explicitly recall if I have shut off my computer properly since the last time I applied an update, however long ago that was. I usually just put the computer to sleep when I leave for work or go to bed. I'm fairly sure I've applied all the latest official updates.

UPDATE: This time after an hour I came back and it said "cleaning up..." and after a long while it actually booted per normal.
If I'm not mistaken, it says that after it removes a failed update, does it not?

If there is a bad update sitting on my system, how do i keep it from applying at this point? I know Microsoft said they weren't supporting Windows 7 anymore, but they've released several updates and fixes since then. When would I know that it would be better to stop applying updates?