A Geek Squad agent was able to fix this on Thursday but the problem recurred on Saturday.  Since then they have spend about 8 hours without getting the flashing update removed.  Microsoft Essentials has probably been repaired 10 times and rebooted.  It has been completely removed and reinstalled multiple times all too no avail. 

I have read all the previous questions and answers including signing out; using a junk mail sign in and then closing reopening, etc.  To no avail.  My Geek agent concluded that it was a corrupt profile on the MS Server but MS says they don't provide individual support for Essentials and suggested I buy Outlook.

Can anyone help?