If you drag and drop the image onto the VM, startup is instant. It's only when you double-click Squeak.exe that it can take >some time (due to some oddities in Windows).
If no one else is going to look into this I may at some point in the future, as I can see no real reason why it should be like that.
Unless someone experienced in Windows programming already has and it cannot be beat.
In Windows dragging the image to the exec causes another error message regarding not being able to write the changes file, atleast on my system anyway.
Aaron