Windows Update on infrequently-used VM takes all day

We currently run Windows on Virtualbox on my wife's iMac desktop, and I'm about to add a Macbook to our inventory and probably will use Parallels to run my single Windows app that I can't live without. Our Virtualbox experience has one annoying quirk: Since she only uses her Windows app occasionally, the first thing that happens when it launches is Windows Update. It runs a really long time, and usually requires a reboot or two. My question is, does Parallels have a better way to manage Windows updates so that maybe they can run automatically in the background or something? I just want to be able to run my app without waiting for updates.