Why are Windows updates so slow (and long) with VISTA

Interesting !  This post triggered only vague replies from Microsoft Support Moderator and Engineer, who eventually suggested that the problem either did not exist or that we we had only bad connections.

But your post and my experience is that this is all wrong.  The update process IS much slower with Vista than with XP.

Like you, I had to reinstall Vista and, as you mention, it too me more than one day ! ...  I have done the same with XP several times, and it was MUCH faster.

I wish someone from Microsoft can give us not only a reasonable explanation but also suggest a solution.

I feel your pain. I'm doing a Vista reinstall and of course it is painfully slow. I don't want to know the technical reasons why it takes so long. I want to know why the worlds largest supplier of operating systems cannot manage to streamline the process. With a quad core computer, 4 gigs of ram and a 10 meg connection it's an all day process. Ridiculous. What I would like to know is why Microsoft doesn't offer a complete updated image that can be downloaded and activated with existing key? I wish they would be more concerned with customer satisfaction than piracy. I'd love to hear from an MS engineer why this is not possible. I think my first set of updates was 169 the second set is 80. Nice job guys!

I'm watching a vista machine downloading a 5.7 mb update over a fast cable connection, sitting on 98% for 15 minutes.

No net activity at all. Been trying to get a new install of vista updated for 12 hours now and there are stioll 76 updates waiting.

Ridiculuous

In continuation of this thread, I now have experience with updates for Windows 7.  It is also quite slow compared to WinXP and as slow as with Vista.  Are they any plan to improve this ?  Improvements could be brought at two levels: (i) the speed at which the server replies and delivers the updates; (ii) trying to avoid the long processes of configuring during shut down and configuring during starting up ...

Since I do not seem to be the only one to complain about that, what is the channel to send these suggestions for improvement to Microsoft ?

Shinmila's and Ryan's answers still do not address the original question... one that I've been looking for an answer to for quite some time.

The question was about a COMPARISON to the updating procedures for Xp and Vista (and now Windows 7, which appears to have the same issue).

When you use XP to download from the http://www.windowsupdate.com web site, it seems to update rather quickly.  This option is not available in Windows Vista or 7.  Windows Vista and 7 takes much longer than XP to install the SAME KINDS OF UPDATES.

First of all, why?

Second of all, is there a way to speed it up in Vista/7?  It's annoying.