This has happened the last two times I've done updates to this system, and I really have no idea what is going on. It is installing a only a month's worth of updates. It only responds to ping and no services are up, so I can't view the system remotely (I have to hook up a monitor to see this message). In the past I've just restarted the system at this point and it eventually finishes updating. I want to know what I can do to avoid this situation, how to diagnose what is going on, and how to get any kind of remote access during the updates.

Edit: I can start the machine in safe mode (where I did nothing but backup some files). I restarted and it no longer tries to do a windows update, just goes to the desktop where everything seems extremely broken. I can click on some things, but not launch most programs. I guess all I can do at this point is do a system restore or something.