T 'n' T: Make a Date With Windows Update Helping Windows Help Itself Gregg Keizer
Mon 1/28/02 -- Microsoft will never come right out and say it -- "Our operating system's got bugs, baby!" -- but the company does the next best thing: It acknowledges that Windows needs constant fixes, patches, and corrections.
How? By the increasing attention paid to Windows' self-updating mechanism. Each version of Windows has added more update tools, and made them more prominent and more automated, than the one before.
Keeping your Windows installation up to date -- even if that doesn't always mean upgrading to Windows XP -- is important, so this week's T 'n' T is a five-pack of tips and tricks relating to operating system updates.
Quit nagging me. Microsoft would be the last to say Windows XP is buggy -- it just happened to build an automatic update service into the OS and turn it on for you as a default. If you have a fast cable, DSL, or T1 connection to the Net and a high-powered processor, Win XP's in-the-background downloading and installation of updates makes sense (though it removes you from the decision loop). But a dial-up modem link can send you right up the wall when this feature kicks in.
To disable or at least minimize this obsession with self-improvement, choose Settings from the Start menu, pick Control Panel, and select System. Click on the Automatic Updates tab, then check either the "Turn off automatic updating..." or "Notify me before downloading..." boxes. The former kills the feature; the latter lets it check for updates and tell you when one's available. (It doesn't download any files, or do the installation, so its online time is brief.) I use the "Notify me" setting myself.
(Note: Windows Millennium has a similar feature, but you'll find it in its own Control Panel module as Automatic Updates.)
Get updates in a bunch. I like the way Windows Update sniffs out the bug fixes and security patches my machines need, but scooting from one machine to another to download fixes individually -- I have at least three, usually five, Windows PCs running in my office -- is a royal pain.
Well, Microsoft doesn't go out of its way to tell you this, but it does make updates available outside of Windows Update. In fact, these sites let you download updates, critical and otherwise, to one PC, from which you can disseminate them over your network or move them via sneakernet using CD-R discs (or, for petite patches, Zip or floppy disks).
For Windows XP Home Edition and Windows XP Professional: Bookmark Windows Update Catalog. Select your OS and click Search.
For all other Windows: Bookmark the Windows Update Corporate Site. Once there, click on the Search link, then on the Software Updates tab. Use the keyword field, operating system and language choices, and post dates to narrow your search, then click Next.
Update Windows 98 and 2000. Win 2000 and 98 lack the automated update mechanism built into Windows Me and XP, but you can add something similar in just a few shakes. Using Internet Explorer, head to the Windows Update site, click Product Updates, then check the "Windows Critical Update Notification" box. Click Download and follow the instructions.
Once Critical Update's installed, it waits until you establish a live Internet connection, then periodically checks for critical updates (the ones Microsoft thinks you should download and install toot sweet). If it finds one or more, it puts a message on the screen. You'll have the option to find out more about the updates before you download them, or delay installation for 24 hours if you're busy at the moment. If you tire of Critical Update Notification, get rid of it by using Add/Remove Programs from the Control Panel.
No to Netscape. Okay, so Netscape Navigator got blown out of the water by the Microsoft juggernaut, but that's no reason to kick a browser when it's down. Yet that's just what's happened: Try to access the Windows Update site using Navigator, and you'll find out that, well, you can't.
Netscape's browser, which doesn't support ActiveX -- a prime ingredient of the Windows Update site -- is blocked. Your only option is to download Internet Explorer, or if it's present on your system, fire it up and type http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com in its address field.
Netscape fans can't do an end run around IE by using the Windows Update Corporate Site (see above), since it too demands ActiveX. As a last resort, you might try the separate download sites for Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, or Windows 2000. Windows Me and XP users are completely out of luck, for those operating systems demand that you go to Windows Update.
Fuggedaboutit. Sometimes, Windows Update doesn't take no for an answer -- it'll offer you the same files each time you use it, again and again, no matter how many times you've declined to download them. Fortunately, Windows XP users can personalize Update so it won't keep bugging you.
Go to the Windows Update site, then click on the "Personalize Windows Update" link under the "Other Options" section in the navigational bar at the left of the screen. To tell Windows to forget an update file, clear the check box next to the update and click the Save Settings button.
