Hangup when installing application updates

Hi:
On on of my computers, A Dell laptop, Windows 7, 8gb Ram, 250gb hard disk, Intel Core I7 first of second generation (yes it is generally slow), I find that, after downloading an application update, the installation hangs in the middle and doesn't install. On my other computer and on my USB thumb drive, it updates the PortableApps platform without difficulty.

So my question is whether anyone has a suggestion regarding how to to fix this problem?

Thanks
Jojo