Vista: Stage 3 of 3 0% Complete

photo by mdumlao98

Besides me, it looks like a number of people got bricked by the latest Vista update (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, &c.)

What happens: Vista does an automatic update and keeps displaying "Stage 3 of 3. o% complete" and keeps rebooting forever and ever, hallelujah, hallelujah.

How to fix it: Reboot, press F8 while starting up, do System Restore, restore your system to before the moment of brickage (and turn off automatic updates in Control Panel so it doesn't happen again (at least until this problem has been addressed).

Note: If you're keeping score, this was on a Dell E1705 laptop.