All Windows Update Related Activity Hangs Service

I'm on a Dell XPS laptop (Windows 10 version 1909)

1. When I try to check for updates, the progress indicator never stops working - it won't even finish checking.
2. When running the Windows Update troubleshooter, the initial progress indicator (looking for pending restarts) never goes away.
3. Stopping the Windows Update service leaves it stuck in the stopping state even after rebooting (I have tried various means of rebooting but am not sure if I have found one that actually forces the power all the way off given #2).
4. Using taskkill to force the service to stop makes the service stop, but then we're back to square 1.
5. Tried manually downloading the latest SSU and the latest cumulative update KB files. Running either of those gets stuck on the first step "searching for updates om this computer."
6. Windows update history indicates latest install attempt of KB4550945 failed with code 0x80070020 (So that's the KB I tried to download manually).

How can I get past this?

I think any service, like an third party antivirus or other software are interfering with the windows update process. You need to do a clean boot. Open Task manager > Startup tab, click Hide all Microsoft services and uncheck the startup services which you suspect. Now reboot and run update.

If it does not help, then reboot and open Command prompt as Administrator and tun sfc /scannow and dism /online /cleanup-image /restoreHealth. Then run for %%a in (wuaserv cryptSvc bits msiserver) do (net stop %%a) & takeown /f "%windir%\SoftwareDistribution" & icacls "%windir%\SoftwareDistribution" /grant Administrators:F & ren "%windir%\SoftwareDistribution" SoftwareDistribution.old & takeown /f "%windir%\catroot2" & icacls "%windir%\catroot2" /grant Administrators:F & ren "%windir%\catroot2" catroot2.old & for %%a in (wuaserv cryptSvc bits msiserver) do (net start %%a). Now restart and run the updates.

Hope that helps