John Jones wrote:

Win 7 HomePremium 64 bit

After updating skype it said
your computer needs to be rebooted to finish installing windows updates

Puzzled, since the Win 10 fiasco I have windows updates firmly
switched off. So long ago that I cant recall how.

Do you have the BITS (Background Intelligent Transfer Service) and WU
(Windows Updates) services disabled? Go into services.msc to check.

Simply configuring the WU client to "notify only" or not download will
not prevent updates. Users have discovered for a long time that they
still get updates with the WU client configured off, usually detecting
the update when they try to shutdown and see the message about the
updating.

How do I find out what update it is talking about?

- Go to Control Panel - Programs and Features.
- Click on View Installed Updates (left pane). Wait for the list to
populate. Takes awhile. Watch green progress bar in address bar.
- Scroll to the right to see the Installed On column.
- Make sure to use the Details view. Alas this also groups the updates
by publisher.
- Look for the one with the recent datestamp, or one with a date for
whenever you updated Skype (since you did not say it was today).

Can I stop it?

The update(s) has(have) already been applied. Too late. You can
right-click on an update to uninstall it *if* it is uninstallable (not
all of them are; i.e., once applied, they are permanent).

However, if the update requires a reboot to get its fileset in sync (to
replace inuse or locked files), then an uninstall of the update may not
be successful because it is in an interim state. You will have to
shutdown, reboot, and then decide whether or not to uninstall the
update(s).

If I do is that the end of skype as I know it?

Security fixes do not stop the operation of the program. It was running
before. It still runs but perhaps (not guaranteed) more securely. Bug
fixes do not stop the old version of a program from running (but the bug
fix may stop the new version or cause unwanted behavior: new code = new
bugs).

Was Skype inoperable before you updated it? Have you tried using Skype
after applying the update (it already said it got applied)? Once you
determine the mysterious update, and if you decide to uninstall the
update (if it can be uninstalled), check if Skype still works.