How reliable/trustworthy/accurate is Windows/Microsoft Update?

[Ken Springer]

The subject line says it all. :-(

In doing 3 attempts (so far) at a full install of XP Home, from ground
zero, Windows/Microsoft Update has told me the same high priority,
security update should be installed.

And, each time I install it, the computer will not shut down from the
desktop in any way, shape, or manner. The computer automatically
reboots each and every time. Only holding the power button or
unplugging works.

Has anyone had the Update process tell them to install an update and not
have it work correctly? I could understand this happening with Windows
7, but with XP????????? That seems illogical to me.

Specifics and details will be in another post.


--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.6.8
Firefox 5.0
Thunderbird 5.0
LibreOffice 3.3.3

 

[Mayayana]

Personally I always stay away from Microsoft's
update drip-feed. I might not get the latest
security fixes, but I'm also not an involuntary
beta tester. I just download SP3, install it myself,
and disable the Windows Update service.

If you want the latest patches you just have
to acccept taking a chance. They're usually fine,
but problems are certainly not uncommon.

 

[Ken Springer]

Personally I always stay away from Microsoft's
update drip-feed. I might not get the latest
security fixes, but I'm also not an involuntary
beta tester. I just download SP3, install it myself,
and disable the Windows Update service.

If you want the latest patches you just have
to acccept taking a chance. They're usually fine,
but problems are certainly not uncommon.

I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've reinstalled either
Home or Pro and then used the update service, but the issue in my other
post is the first time something like that has happened. And that's
what prompted my question.

I have a copy of SP3 on my hard drive here, and I usually use it for the
OS reinstall. But I'm not sure that MS doesn't update the files in the
SP3 package. I recently had a computer that gave me fits after
installing SP3 from that file, so I downloaded and installed SP3 via the
update process, and then everything went well. So, I think I'll just
use the update process from here on out, and delete the file to free up
some hard drive space.


--
Ken

Mac OS X 10.6.8
Firefox 5.0
Thunderbird 5.0
LibreOffice 3.3.3