windows 7 update feature is stuck

[ch409]

running windows 7
64 bit
sp1

when i go to control panel and select the windows update icon i get the dreaded hanging spinning wheel which wont stop.
a restart will allow access back into the update feature 50% of the time so that work around is hit or miss.
even if i can get into update module update history is always blank.
i do not know when the last update was done. in reality how important is updating?
i would hate to cause problems as my computer is otherwise doing fine.

if i can eventually update is there a specific way to select only vital updates without having to wait for all the unnecessary ones to install?
of course my main concerns are firewall security.

i see this is a common issue as there is a lot of information on this topic.
unfortunately it all seems surrounded by a grey area as to what works or not.

thanks

[gameperson]

To answer your questions. You can restart the windows update services, by going to the start button, click on run, type in services.msc, go to windows update in the list and then click on restart in the upper left hand corner.

In terms of selecting updates, it used to be that you could pick as many or as few as you wanted, but then Microsoft changed that by creating monthly updates, which is all updates rolled into one file for the month.

You should change the windows update to manual and do a manual scan for updates.