Configuring Windows Updates. 0% Complete. Please do not power off or unplug your machine. Installing update 1 of 5.

I get this type of message all the time on shutting down and it hangs my laptop. Something in Windows Update gets stuck. A lot.

Here’s a couple of the fixes I’ve used semi- (temporarily) successfully:

• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/949358
• http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/troubleshoot-problems-with-installing-updates

Ios7 Game Center won't go away

I play Scrabble on my iPad and iPhone, mostly with my family through Facebook, which is a blast. One day a year or so ago I somehow hooked Scrabble up to Apple's "Game Center". Almost instantly this turned into a pain in the neck with popups and logins and messages every time I tried to play Scrabble. What was worse is the dialog that would ask every time I opened Scrabble if I wanted to disable Scrabble from Game Center (something along those lines). I would answer yes yet it kept coming up every time. 

This continued into iOS 7. There are new ways to remove Scrabble from Game Center. But the changes somehow reverse themselves every restart. We'll I've finally figured out a way to at least stop it from bothering me, with the help of the following link:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/19594549#19594549

Basically it's as simple as logging out of Game Center and then disabling all the possible options in Notification Center for Game Center. This of course affects a lot more than Scrabble. A price I'm willing to pay until Apple fixes Game Center.