Extremely slow Windows launch after Windows Update

I have another post here where I mentioned that all was going smoothly - that should say once Windows has launched.

This problem arose after running Windows update from within Windows XP Pro SP3. There were 115 udpates due to Windows OS install was from a SP3 disk, so I assume it had to go back years to bring everything up to date. And there was a subsequent update after restarting of 8 more items. Mostly security updates.

Anyway I am now, as I write this, 30 minutes in to the launch and am stuck at the "Windows is starting up..." portion of the launch. I have not doubt that it will eventually launch as it did after the first series of updates. I just didn't stick around to watch that happen. I figured it needed some time to deal with all the updates. But an additional 8 updates should not take this much time to deal with. It certainly doesn't on a real PC.

Did I goof by running the updates in the first place? I am assuming that I should treat a virtual Parallels/Windows running on a mac the same as a real PC. Am I wrong in that assumption?

Thank you,

Dave


27" iMac OS 10.7.4 16gb
Parallels 7 - 4gb assigned
Windows XP Pro SP3

 

I am trying to troubleshoot this issue.
I uninstalled and reinstalled PD7. No change.

I am now starting with a fresh vm. No big deal, no data is lost as I am just testing the feasibility of PD7 on a mac.
Assuming that I get the speed of the launch of the windows OS back, do I treat this as I would any real PC installed windows OS? In other words, do I run Windows updates and install MS security essentials? Or do I ignore the security updates and just install the OS fixes?