Patches and SPs

[Dick]

I purchased an HP Pavilions laptop, with
Vista Home Premium SP1, 3-4 months ago.
There were about 35-40 security patches
waiting for download and installation. I
haven't gotten around to installing all of
them yet. Does SP2 include all of those patches?

TIA

 

[Richard G. Harper]

Almost certainly not as there are patches and updates that have been
released since SP2 was released.

 

[Dick]

So the MS update system doesn't recognize
that a computer doesn't have the subproduct
that it is updating? Why would anyone want
to install bloat for SP2 if SP2 isn't even on
the machine? What am I missing?

If I install SP2 without installing the
remaining patches, will I still have the
opportunity to install them at a later date?

Richard G. Harper wrote

 

[Peter Foldes]

Dick

I would install SP2 and then go back and install the remaining Updates. Most
certainly some or even most of those Updates that are showing up for you at present
will be included in the SP2 package .

 

[Richard G. Harper]

I'm sorry, but I don't know what you're asking here. Or you don't know what
you're asking. Not sure which.

By and large updates, including security updates, are for the most part
SP-agnostic; they neither know nor care which SP they're updating. When
Microsoft releases a SP, they include the available security patches to that
point, plus widely-available updates, plus product updates, and a great many
other things. This is documented with the release of any SP - a KB article
tells you exactly what the SP does and does not contain.

Simply because you have don't SP2 installed does not mean that you do not
need any updates since SP2; and in fact almost all of the updates released
since SP2 almost certainly apply to any Vista computer whether it is at SP1
or SP2. It is about as certain as it can be that you need all the security
updates released since SP2 whether you are at SP2 or SP1.