Automatic updates, really necessary?

I have been running WinXP SP1 for at least 18 months with no problems whatsoever. No compatibility issues with any of my other applications (there are quite a few of them).

I also have a corporate firewall from Kerio which has served me well.

Question is this: Should I upgrade to SP2 and turn on the "connect me to M$ every ten minutes" function that may mess my system up or leave it as is?

With all of these new security patches emerging are the auto updates absolutely essential nowdays or is my firewall enough to keep the nasties at bay? I really dont want a load of compatibility issues and errors that are likely to crop up by installing all of these patches/service packs/updates, the system is running fine as is.

Thanks for your thoughts!

I've got folks using xp, who won't adopt sp1 ! Never mind sp2 .. :eek2:

Personally I'm of the 'update it always immediately' line of thought .. but being confus-ed & all, this also means, I can (when the fancy takes me) switch tack, & say that firms who've done sufficient testing & have adequate 'insulation' from the outside world, might well be better if they have really complex systems, sitting tight on updates until they can estimate the effect of any changes on their greater system ...

(but for folks at home, this is not generally a good idea, unless you have a security expert & a big fat team of system admins to make sure no 'strangeness' is affecting any particular system - lots of 'really big firms' have policy regarding this, which is to the effect of 'test it first' :))

XP sp2 adds more functionality than just the firewall. I like the pop-up blocker better than googles. It is also configurable - not just the on or off like google's. This is good to know for your cusotmers that don't or won't use a different browser than IE. It also adds the functionality to stop executables. You are prompted to OK active-X controls and .exe's. You are also prompted when you run an executable, as in from the run line or double-clicking an excutable that isn't installed on the system.


On my home system, I haven't had any issues with sp2. I am also not running old or specialized apps. Just typical Office and stuff.

At work, we have 2 apps that have to be allowed through the firewall. But it is so simple to do.

As for turning on the auto updates, I recommend it. I set my home computer to update every morning at like 3 AM, my McAfee to update at 4 AM and run a full system scan at 4:30. I have broadband and leave my computer on but not logged on. It is working well for me. I got the update for the latest zero-day exploit before the MS website even had the KB article up.

As for updates messing up your system, I have not personally encountered any of those, with the exception of one update that hosed the ability to save to a floppy in Windows 2000 systems. For the most part, I believe systems get messed up when there are specialized applications installed.

I have WSUS running at work and rely on it more than I thought I would.

Over all, auto-updating is better turned on than not. I think the quality of MS patches is pretty good and pretty consistent. The only problem I've run into lately has involved slow log-ons to a Win 2003 Server from computers running W2K SP4. There's a fix for this, but I'm trying to get the client to update all the W2K machines to XP Pro, since W2K is end of life.

MS updates mostly cover exploits and security holes, so I would recommend peple asking me to st it and forget it.

In the hundreds of patches issued through Win2000 and WinXP, I have only experienced 2 glitches which hindered usage enough to ne noticeable.

To flip side is that by not updating you run the risk of leaving your machine open to bugs, exploits and security risks that no AV software, firewall or anti-spyware program can cover.

The positives far outway the negatives, IMHO.

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Originally Posted by Green_Eyed

I have WSUS running at work and rely on it more than I thought I would.

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I'm glad you mentioned that :thumbs:

For those who don't know; WSUS is Windows Server Update Services, & its overall purpose is to;-

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..fully manage the distribution of updates that are released through Microsoft Update to computers in your network..

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Which if you are one of these larger organisations I was mumbling about earlier that might have dependencies on certian things happening in a particular way, gives you a chance to effectively pick & choose which updates you apply to any particular machine or group & when (if at all, as its not unknown for patches/updates to get replaced later by 'better' ones)