Windows will not start

When I last shut down my computer, the "install updates and shut down" button
was 'on' so I clicked it. Computer shut down as expected...
When I tried to start it again the next day, it had to install updates and
was going slowly, so I walked away. When I came back minutes later, I had a
black screen saying that "Windows failed to start" and a file was corrupt
(can't remember which one at the moment, I'm not at my computer). After
going through each of the "start in safe mode," "start in safe mode with
networking," ..and so on, I gave up and am now trying to get more info.

Have there been any issues with recent updates? I have Vista (I assume
that's relevant. I'm not very computer saavy.). Any suggestions?


Thanks,
AJ