Which updates must I have?

[miskairal]

Me again,
I installed SP3 in July and then the August microsoft updates caused my
pc to not reboot. A repair install got it going but there were still
things wrong to the point it stopped booting again. A couple of days ago
I formatted and reinstalled XP Home with a slipstreamed SP3 CD. All is
working fantastic again. I have not done any updates at this point.

What I need to find out is what updates do I really need? I don't know
what caused all the problems I was having and am loathe to go through it
all again. Is there a site that can tell me what I really must have as
an ongoing thing?

Thankyou for your time
Robyn

 

[Shenan Stanley]

Me again,
I installed SP3 in July and then the August microsoft updates
caused my pc to not reboot. A repair install got it going but there
were still things wrong to the point it stopped booting again. A
couple of days ago I formatted and reinstalled XP Home with a
slipstreamed SP3 CD. All is working fantastic again. I have not
done any updates at this point.
What I need to find out is what updates do I really need? I don't
know what caused all the problems I was having and am loathe to go
through it all again. Is there a site that can tell me what I
really must have as an ongoing thing?

Thankyou for your time
Robyn

Don't recognize you - but - you are one of thousands upon thousands who have
posted here in so many days.

Use your web browser, visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ and scan for
(custom) updates. You may need to install updates just to properly use the
page.

In the critical/security updates - uncheck all but one (or a few - your
choice) and install them. Reboot, try things out - you know what problems
you had before... Do you have them now? If not - do it again.

Later - after you have gotten all of the Critical/Security updates - you
could venture into the Optional Software Updates and do the same.

I recommend staying away from the Optional Hardware Updates completely.

 

[MAP]

Sign up for this newsletter
http://www.ultimatewindowssecurity.com/
once a month you will get an e/mail which has a chart just like the one on
the websites home page, under "systems effected" anything that says terminal
servers and workstations are for a business type of eviorment and do not
apply to a home computer. (mostly it is to stop an employee from elevating
thier user rights).
most, but not all hotfixes really do not apply to the average home user,
having a good anti-virus/malware program on top of a firewall will stop most
exploits long before MS gets around to providing a hotfix for it.

You can also write down the kb# of the update and search
microsoft.com
for more info on the hotfix and decied if it applies to you, a real PITA but
it is better than having an update screw your system up,if you do this you
will find out that at least half of the updates state that this exploit
cannot be exploited remotly, in other words the person will need access to
your keyboard, scratch that one off the list many more will state that a
firewall will stop it(not in those words) IMHO very few updates are really
needed for the home user, you will get opinions which disagree with this many
people who come here believe that having all updates on their system is a
badge of honor, but if you go to the windows update site the day after patch
tuesday you will see just how many systems an update have screwed up and most
of it is totally unnessary.

Good luck

 

[miskairal]

Sign up for this newsletter
http://www.ultimatewindowssecurity.com/
once a month you will get an e/mail which has a chart just like the one on
the websites home page, under "systems effected" anything that says terminal
servers and workstations are for a business type of eviorment and do not
apply to a home computer. (mostly it is to stop an employee from elevating
thier user rights).
most, but not all hotfixes really do not apply to the average home user,
having a good anti-virus/malware program on top of a firewall will stop most
exploits long before MS gets around to providing a hotfix for it.

You can also write down the kb# of the update and search
microsoft.com
for more info on the hotfix and decied if it applies to you, a real PITA but
it is better than having an update screw your system up,if you do this you
will find out that at least half of the updates state that this exploit
cannot be exploited remotly, in other words the person will need access to
your keyboard, scratch that one off the list many more will state that a
firewall will stop it(not in those words) IMHO very few updates are really
needed for the home user, you will get opinions which disagree with this many
people who come here believe that having all updates on their system is a
badge of honor, but if you go to the windows update site the day after patch
tuesday you will see just how many systems an update have screwed up and most
of it is totally unnessary.

Good luck

Thankyou so much for that info.

 

[miskairal]

Don't recognize you - but - you are one of thousands upon thousands who have
posted here in so many days.

Use your web browser, visit http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/ and scan for
(custom) updates. You may need to install updates just to properly use the
page.

In the critical/security updates - uncheck all but one (or a few - your
choice) and install them. Reboot, try things out - you know what problems
you had before... Do you have them now? If not - do it again.

Later - after you have gotten all of the Critical/Security updates - you
could venture into the Optional Software Updates and do the same.

I recommend staying away from the Optional Hardware Updates completely.

Thanks Shenan. I actually wrote "Me again" because I asked another
question right before this one but it's gone off into cyberspace
somewhere. Mind you I have been here plenty of times before and you have
answered my questions before so thankyou for all the time you give.

I had thought about doing the updates one by one but gee, I'm nervous of
coming unstuck yet again. I spent so many hours searching the net to see
if any one else had the same problem and asked here. Then so many days
getting it all fixed.I'm going to have a go at making an exact copy of
my active partition and the bootable CD and all that stuff but I have to
read up on it first.

Now I shall toddle off and repost my other question.