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Microsoft provides free updates to several versions of Windows online. These updates are made available to patch such things are security problems, software bugs and update Windows to the most recent release of the version you are running. Currently Microsoft provides updates for:
It is highly recommended that you keep your operating system up to date with these patches. Not updating your operating system may leave you computer open to hacks, viruses and worms. Automatic OS Updates in Windows The 2 pages to the left are intended to help you setup Windows 2000 and Windows XP to do Automatic Updates to the Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows 2003 Servers Operating Systems. These updates can be scheduled as long as the computer is powered on. You DO NOT have to be logged into your computer for the updates to work. Keep in mind that this will ONLY do the Critical Updates (Security Related) and not the regular updates (Non-Security Related) or the driver updates. These you must do manually. Manual OS Updates in Windows Here are the instructions to do Windows Updates manually 1. Open Microsoft Internet Explorer.
2. At the top of the Internet Explorer window click on the word "Tools" (between Favorites and Help) 3. You should now see a pull down type of menu. Select the 3rd option in the menu "Windows Update". Once you do this, you will be taken to the Windows Update webpage that should look some thing like the screen below.
4. Click on "Scan for updates". You should now see a screen like the one below. Notice that in this case it says there are no updates available at this time. This is also indicated in the left frame that shows there are 0 Critical Updates and Service Packs, 0 Windows 2000 (or XP), and 0 Driver Updates.
Generally speaking, the updates do not take much time to download and install due to the speed of our network. The single most important item in this list is the first one "Critical Updates and Service Packs". These are all the security related updates and must be install as soon as possible. If you have your updates to updates automatically, these should be installed without any intervention from you. The second update section are non critical updates for Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2003. Even though these are not critical updates, you should make sure you install them when time permits. These might be updates to some of the programs that come with Windows such as Media Player or Internet Explorer. The last section are the "Driver Updates". These are new drivers that have been released for your hardware. It is a good idea to install these also so that Windows is able to access your hardware properly and use it to it's full potential. |
Last modified: 02/15/2006 03:28 PM . |
