Simple solution
Thanks khiatt for your reply; I had never heard about this before.
So I logged in as Admin.
But there is NO yellow shield (and the taskbar is not locked)!
But if I go to shutdown, I am again offered to install the update (or to shutdown without installing). So I can't customize or see what updates are suggested.
Problem does not seem to be an unanswered prompt: every time I ??installed?? the update (a few times before I realized there was a problem), computer shutdown after installation.