I’ve just done the monthly Windows update (Win 7 64bit) and it appears to have changed the way my computer starts up. It’s showing a 30 second “please wait” at the welcome screen before the password box appears (which it didn’t do before) but then the rest of the start up process is a lot faster. Would be interested to know if anyone else gets this after updating.
I think you may have misread it, after rebooting you would have seen the percentage count for the windows configuring updates which gets to 30% and then the system starts as normal.
Try another reboot and you’ll see everything is back to normal 
I realise that Still getting the prolonged ‘please wait’ after a couple of subsequent re-boots.
You can try running the windows disc clean in admin mode and also delete old restore points, running CCleaner will clean up some of the stuff that windows disc clean misses and it might also be time for a system defrag 
Windows 7 schedules the defrag to run when it assumes you won’t need the computer, usually around 3:00 a.m.
If you have your computer turned off at the appointed time, no defrag occurs.
Check the time that your defrag is scheduled to occur so that you can leave your PC turned on that night.
Defragging in Windows 7 is turned on by default.
You can make changes to suite your own schedule. Access the tool through the following steps:
(Choose Start→All Programs→Accessories→System Tools→Disk Defragmenter)