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Keeping your Windows system updated

From time to time there is an urgent requirement for updating Windows, Outlook and Internet Explorer, to "patch" a security loophole or other fault. These updates or patches are issued at frequent intervals. Some are more important than others. In most cases the order in which the updates are applied is crucial.

The reasons for the updates are often quite complex, and working out what is essential requires more knowledge than most of us have.

Microsoft recognise that this is a problem for the average Windows user, and so they provide a systematic method of applying what they call the "critical" updates. This involves going to the Microsoft web site, allowing Microsoft to inspect your system to determine what updates you require, and then installing those updates which Microsoft say are critical.

Installing the critical updates can be time-consuming, but the more often you do it, the less time it will take on each separate occasion. If you leave it for a month or so, then you might find that it takes several hours to bring your system up-to-date.

This page describes how to install the critical updates on a Windows XP system. You will not be able to keep this page open while you carry out the procedure, so you might like to print it out for reference. Remember that everyone's Windows system is different, so what happens on your computer might not follow exactly the same pattern as that described here. Also, Microsoft sometimes change the appearance and wording of the Windows Update web site.

Go to the Windows Update web site to see if there are any updates to install

There almost certainly will be something requiring updating...

• N.B. You are about to modify your system. In the unlikely event that things go wrong it may be necessary to re-install your entire system. Do you have a repair disk for your system? This is particularly important if you are dealing with your own computer at home. In the case of office machines if things go badly wrong we would recommend a complete re-installation of the system. Wherever you are working, do you have a secure backup? If you make routine backups of your documents and other important data, this should be sufficient.
• You need to have administrator privileges to run the Windows update, so if you do not have administrator privileges you should log off and log on again as Administrator If you try to run the updates without having Administrator privileges, you will see a web page telling you how you can run the updates without logging off and logging back on as administrator. However even so you will need to know the Administrator password.
• Exit from all programs except Internet Explorer.
• Go to http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com - An alternative way to get to this web page is to click on your PC's "Start" button and choose "Windows Update" from the Start menu.
• A screen will appear telling you that "Windows is checking that your computer has the latest version of Windows updating software for use with the website..." There will be a delay during which the system is being scanned.
• When the initial check has been completed another screen will open inviting you to "Keep your computer up to date". There will be two options available on this screen - Express and Custom. The Express option will download any priority updates only. The Custom option will allow you to select high priority and any optional updates. We recomend that you select the Express option.

• If there are critical updates available you will be told how many there are. You may be told that there are other updates available, but you should ignore this, and concentrate on the critical ones.
• Click on "Review and install updates".
• The list of critical updates will now be displayed.
• There is a brief description of what each update does. You have the option to remove unwanted updates, but unless you are fairly knowledgeable we suggest that you trust Microsoft and accept that all the updates which it lists here as critical really are needed .
• Some of the updates may be described as "exclusive", which means that they must be installed separately from the others, and you will need to re-start your system after each exclusive item has been installed.
• Click "Install now".
• If there are exclusive items, you will be warned with a message-box.
• Click OK to install any exclusive item.
• Not all the updates follow exactly the same pattern but they are fairly self explanatory, using a version of the "Setup wizard".
• The wizard will recommend that you update your repair disk and backup your system (if you have not already done so) before proceeding You probably thought of this at the beginning of the process (see above the first bullet point in this list).
• You will need to accept the licence agreement; you do this either by choosing an "I accept" option and clicking "Next" or clicking an "Accept" button.
• In some cases you will be asked if you want to keep an archive of the current system, to enable the un-installation of the update at a later stage If you have a large amount of free disk space this is a good thing to do, but is not essential, and it will slow things down.
• When you reach the next part of the wizard, you will see progress boxes. There are usually several things going on, so there will be several progress boxes. If it is a large update, progress might appear to have come to a standstill for some time.
• At the end of the update process you will be told that you have to re-start the computer. You can either get Windows to restart automatically, or you can opt to shut down and restart in your own time. Either way, the update will not take effect until you have restarted.
• If you have installed an exclusive item you will need to restart the computer and then go back to windowsupdate.microsoft.com and start the process again.
• Go on installing and re-starting until all the critical updates have been installed.
• Setup your computer to install critical updates automatically.
• Download instructions for installing Windows updates (Windows XP and 2000).