why is windows update so slow on vista home premium?

I formatted the HD and reinstalled windows. everything seems much faster. but windows update is SO slow ... still.

I have 52 updates to install, most under 3mb in size... I have high speed internet, my download speed is 26mbps...

so, why does it take windows update so long to do something?

any ideas how or if I can fix this?

WU does a cansiderable amount of work, even when downloading - have you ever watched the Network traffic and processor usage at the time? If you have a slow processor (or it's busy doing other things) it will slow the process down. WU is also set as a low priority on download - so if there is any other traffic on your PC, it will take priority.