Hi,
Can someone please answer this for me.
Will I still get Windows Updates if I don't install the Service packs for Vista & XP?
If that happens won't my system be obsolete?
I would NEVER trust Windows to automatically install updates. One
reason why not I have personal experience with is automatic update in
spite of the fact it isn't suppose to MIGHT reboot your system without
your permission or knowledge EVEN if the system happens to be in the
middle of a long job. This happened to me where I had a long video
rendering all night long, it was about 90% finished, I stepped away
from the computer only to come back and discover Updated had installed
some automatic updates one apparently that required a reboot, so the
result was Windows in effect trashing the render I was working on.
Worse since it was being written to an UBS external drive the act of
rebooting did a forced shutdown while the drive was being actively
written to which could have corrupted the entire hard drive. Lucky for
me that didn't happen, but I did lose over 12 hours work I had to redo
which sure didn't make me feel warm and fuzzy towards Microsoft.
You can ALWAYS download any update (or look for new ones) manually.
Ditto for the Service Packs. This is a much safer method. Trusting
Windows to do it's own thing is asking for trouble and is almost as
bad as having unprotected sex...you never know the possible outcome.
To manually activate Windows Update, just start typing windows update
after clicking on the Start Orb. Click on the link and that window
will come up. For example I just checked and it says there are 8 new
updates available for my system. By clicking on 'view available
updates" it lists them and YOU not it can decide which if any to
install and when. Much better method. As far as Service Packs, just
use Google or your favorite search engine and it should locate the
appropriate Microsoft page you can download a self executing copy
from.
