When spinning up a new VM in VMware from an .iso you will likely have to install one hundred and one Windows updates.

This is pretty frustrating and means that you should not immediately restart if you need to immediately work on the VM. Don't fall down that pit! This details a way to turn off the Windows Updates. I'm not certain it works. The steps:

1. Type update at start menu in Windows Server 2008 R2.
2. Click "change settings" at the left menu of the thing which appears.
3. Click the "Give me recommended updates the same way I receive important updates" checkbox.