Dr MadCow's Articles Web Portal V3.60

Article Properties

Article Title: Are you doing ALL of your Windows Updates?

Article Author: Daryl Quenet
Article Category: Tips
Times Read: 1532
Date: 2003-07-29 20:00:00
Pages: 1

Most people I meet have never been in Windows Update. Although most people may think their getting all their Windows updates, chances are there only the critical updates for Windows. These are the updates that notify you down in the bottom right hand corner in the system tray, or are the automatic updates. These updates are by far the most important, but there not the updates that can affect your performance, they are mainly security oriented.

However driver updates for overall system performance can make some of the greatest differences, same with newer APIs like DirectX (currently 9.0c available on Windows Update). Keep in mind though most drivers on Windows Update are rather outdated compared to what is currently offered by the part makers websites, or beta driver circles. An upside to this is these drivers are fully Microsoft WHQL Certified. Keep in mind to always grab your graphics drivers from the chip maker’s website.

The final section although not as important as the previous two contains a lot of the Microsoft goodies. These include non serious Windows Updates, Microsoft product updates (such Netmeeting, Media Player, MSN etc), and service packs.

On a side note you can also find updates for Microsoft Office, if you click on the Office Family, and then click on Check for Updates. This includes updates to all Microsoft Office Family updates, which includes product updates, outlook spam filter updates, and entire service packs.

Now I bet you are excited at the thought of achieving greater levels of stability. So let us get you checking out Windows Update. Click on Start -> Programs -> Windows Update, now an Internet Explorer window will popup displaying the Windows Update Screen. Some users may experience a message about downloading the latest Windows Update version, make sure you select yes. Once you are into Windows Update click on Custom, or Scan for Updates depending on your OS version.

Next you'll see the number of Updates in each category listed on the left hand side. Select your desired category, and don't go overboard on the number of updates installed between each reboot I've seen Windows harm it self this way. By default Windows selects all uninstalled critical updates. Windows will also supersede all available product updates if there is a Service Pack that has not been installed yet.

Service packs are always something to be excited about; these are almost always major overhauls to the operating system. They help raise the level of stability, performance, security, and new features within an operating system. They also help update the default drivers for a Windows base installation if used to slipstream into an install. With almost every Windows XP Service Pack to date over 1000 operating system files were updated.

You will find some updates require being installed separately, I also recommend doing the following Updates alone. Any time you upgrade IE (this includes IE Service Packs), Media Player, or DirectX. Also don't be alarmed when you see Malicious Code Removal tools, this is something new and it is just a scanner to look for Worms/Viruses that are due to Windows security holes. If you stay on top of your updates, you are way less likely to get infected.