Windows 7 weekly update

[#1]

Last night when my wife shut down her laptop, which has Win 7 on it, it said that message along the lines of 'Downloading updates 1 of 2. Do not power down until it has finished'.
Here we are 12 hours later, and the message hasn't moved on, not even to update 2 of 2.
Cntl/Alt/Del doesn't do anything.
What should I do?
Thanks for any help

[#2]

Have you tried hitting the cancel update button?

[#3]

Press and hold down the power button until it turns off!

[#4]

I've just checked and I had 12 updates on the 11th, 2 on the 12th and 2 today.
The last one today was a .NET update 4.5.2 and it seemed to stick for about 5 minutes with no sign of progress and then suddenly it announced completion so I'm about to reboot.
Edit: Success.
Hope you get sorted penneck

[#5]

That message is a bit of a "veiled threat" as far as I am concerned.... what it is saying, is "don`t switch off, before I have finished updating all the bits and bobs"..  because you will have to download and install it again later if you do....
but the way it is worded... it seems to mean... "don`t switch off until I have finished, otherwise i`ll blow up the machine, and you will have to buy another one! "....

[#6]

Erm! OP has waited for 12 hours for the update to complete! 

[#7]

So.... Erm... shut it down, if you want to use the computer... and do the update later, when you don`t want to.... sometimes, it will work quicker on the second attempt, as half the work has already been done... ( despite the "veiled threat" warning ).... 

[#8]

My windows 8 laptop got 6 updates last night.
I closed the lid.  Today it was still doing the updates  Not sure if it's because you shut the lid 
Anyway it updated within 5 minutes from  opening the laptop this morning - it was still on and hadn't shut down, but obviously did after completing the updates this morning.
NE

[#9]

Problem solved. The solution was......
After I posted the query, we had to go out to babysit our grandchildren. When we got back late last night, my wife found her laptop had switched off. She turned it on, and it was okay. She didn't tell me what had happened. I was unable to have another go at dealing with the problem until just now, and found her laptop powered off. I thought she had been fiddling with it and had managed to turn it off. That is when I found out what she had known since last night.
Whether there was a problem downloading the updates from Microsoft during those 12 hours, or not, I cannot tell.
Anyway, all's well that ends well.
Thanks to you all for your help. I'm grateful

[#10]

So many laptops have power management settings that are inappropriate for the way they are used and this is typical of the problems I encounter.
By default they seem to be set to sleep or hibernate at the slightest hint of user inactivity, whether plugged in or on battery.
I've seen systems that have had no updates applied for 18 months or more as a result!  
Now that may be fine for "road warriors" managed and monitored by a corporate support department, but for the average home user where the laptop is used very much like a desktop, it's rubbish.
I suggest going through all the power settings and change them more to desktop settings, especially what the power button does and what closing the lid does too.
Essentially you should minimise the sleep/hibernation activity UNLESS running on battery and you really need it, otherwise power off normally when not needed.
A "proper" power off will, by default, apply any outstanding updates before shutting down. 

[#11]

Good suggestion HP. I've just set all her laptop pc's power savings settings to Never, but only when on mains. I've left the battery settings alone