Chapter 36: Other Windows XP Resources

Updating Your Computer Automatically with Automatic Updates

If you've used your Windows XP for more than a few days, you may have seen a little Update Reminder balloon appear above the notification area at the right end of the taskbar, asking you to configure Windows to update itself automatically over the Internet. This message comes from Automatic Updates, a Windows feature that contacts Microsoft over the Internet, checks for Windows updates, downloads them, and installs them. You can configure Automatic Updates to ask you before downloading or installing updates.

You have two ways to configure Automatic Updates:

• If the Automatic Updates icon or balloon appears in the notification area of the taskbar, click it to see the Updates dialog box. Click Settings to configure Automatic Updates, Remind Me Later if you want the Update Reminder Box to appear later, or choose Next to view the license for Windows Updates and to turn the feature on.
• Otherwise, choose Start | Control Panel, click Performance And Maintenance, and click System to display the System Properties dialog box. (Another way to display this dialog box is to click Start, right-click My Computer, and choose Properties from the menu that appears.) Click the Automatic Updates tab, as shown in Figure 36-3.

Figure 36-3: Configuring the Automatic Update system

The Notification Settings give you three options:

• Download the Updates Automatically And Notify Me When They Are Ready To Be Installed Enables Automatic Updates. When Automatic Updates downloads a group of updates, you can choose which ones to install, as described later in this section.
• Notify Me Before Downloading Any Updates And Notify Me Again Before Installing Them On My Computer Enables Automatic Updates. Windows checks to see whether updates are available. If they are, an icon appears in the notification area of the taskbar, and a reminder box asks whether you want to download and install them, as described later in this section. Double-click the icon to see the list of updates and click the check boxes so that a check mark appears next to each update you want to download.
• Turn Off Automatic Updating. I Want To Update My Computer Manually Windows doesn't do automatic updating.

If Automatic Updates are enabled, and new updates are available for you to download an install, an icon appears in the notification area on the taskbar, and a balloon might appear, like this:

Click the icon or balloon to display the Automatic Updates Ready To Install dialog box (shown in Figure 36-4), which asks whether you want to install them. Click the Details button to see a list of the downloaded updates. Click Install to install the updates you choose. Click Remind Me Later if now is not a convenient time to install them (for example, you don't want to restart Windows).

Figure 36-4: Automatic Updates has downloaded an update to Windows and asks whether you want to install it.

If you decide not to install an update you've downloaded, Windows deletes it from your hard disk. However, you can decide to install it later. From the Automatic Updates tab of the System Properties dialog box, click the Restore Declined Updates button to display a list of the updates that you decided not to install. You can choose which items you want to install after all. The next time Automatic Updates checks the Microsoft site for updates, it includes the items you specify.