Win7 Windows Virtual PC XP Mode crash

["Rob, grandpa of Ryan, Trevor, Devon & Hannah" <rmslade () shaw ca>]

OK, a slightly harder question:

Installed XP Mode (the reason I bought the Pro version) on Windows 7 (and 
*that* was a trip, in and of itself).  I managed, on my account/"Desktop," to 
install the 85-90 Windows XP updates that were necessary.

Given the time this takes, and the space it occupies on the disk, one would think 
that one set of system files is all that is necessary, and updates would be applied to 
the other Windows 7 accounts.  Not so!  When I went to make some adjustments 
to XP Mode on Gloria's account, it was still trying to sell me all those lovely 
updates.  So I installed them.  After which, of course, it wanted to restart.  So I did.

It didn't.

The error messages I am getting (not all consistent) started out with a note that 
"Integration" wasn't working.  So I "retried," and, when that didn't work (surprise, 
surprise) I tried "continue."  I got something like a DOS box, noting (among other 
things) that "hal.dll" is missing or corrupt.

The Hardware Abstraction Layer file is necessary to Windows, of course.  
Normally you try to restore a backup or something to the disk.  Unfortunately, in 
a virtual machine (or, a Windows Virtual PC, at least) the "disk" is a file on the 
real disk.  Not a folder, a file.  And therefore inaccessible.

Now, there is a utility that gives you information about the various components 
of your Windows Virtual PC.  The virtual hard disk (or disks) is one item.  There 
is an option to modify it.  However, you can only modify the disk if the virtual 
machine it is assigned to is shutdown.

And, since the Windows Virtual PC XP Mode machine isn't working properly, the 
shutdown isn't working, either.  Therefore, the machine can't be fixed.

(Yes, I've tried the "restore previous version" option under Windows Virtual PC: 
apparently Microsoft doesn't think that a restore point is necessary when 
installing Windows updates.)

Any suggestions gratefully accepted.

(Ceterum censeo Microsoft esse delendam.)

======================  (quote inserted randomly by Pegasus Mailer)
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