When should I update?

[supanatral]

There are a stories around google talking about how windows updates messes up
their computers. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that people don't post
after updating their computer saying that it works.

Should I always update windows?

[M]

I haven't had a problem with Windows update since 1997 (Win 95 - Win XP.
Not one. I always update as soon as possible to avoid "exploit Wednesday".

M

[Shenan Stanley]

No one could give you an all-inclusive answer (Yes or No) because if they
did, they would not be taking into account that things can/do go wrong.

Please note that on most of the stories you read on the Internet - if you
read the entire thing - including the solution - it is not the update that
caused the mess - but something already wrong with the computer and the
patch/update uncovering the problem.

I can say *I* don't think you should ever get hardware device drivers from
Microsoft for hardware Microsoft did not manufacture. ATI video card,
NVidia video card, Logitech mouse, Logitech webcam, Intel network device,
etc - none of them were manufacturered by Microsoft - so why would you go to
Microsoft for support for them? Yes - Microsoft may have created the
operating system you are using on top of said hardware - but they don't even
make the drivers they offer you - they just approve of them and many times
months after they were released and replaced by newer ones.

I can also say that I personally manualluy update all of my computers and
manage the updates of hundreds upon hundreds of others through a server -
ensuring that I can investigate the updates the second Tuesday of each month
for any known issues that might come up and adjust for it before I install.

So - I would suggest setting your Automatic Updates to "Notify, but don't
download/install" and I would - each time it offers you updates - read up on
the updates before installing.

Also - keep your machine clean and clear of infestations and infections. Be
sure you properly maintain it and keep your data backed up - because things
can go wrong in a multitude of ways. You don't want that to happen and you
have to come back here asking how to 'restore' anything.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

[V]

Before you do the update though it would pay for you to click the link for
more information and check out the known issues or caveats so you could
possibly avoid issues before they arise.

For example one of the updates this month tell you that you could have
issues if you have a certian video card installed. If you upgrade the
drivers for said video card you will fix the issues before they become
issues.

"supanatral" <supan...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:C9D658BA-C1EB-439A...@microsoft.com...

[supanatral]

What about when it comes to updating Servers? When should/shouldn't your
update your servers?

"V" wrote:

> .
>

[Shenan Stanley]

supanatral wrote:
> There are a stories around google talking about how windows updates
> messes up their computers. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure that
> people don't post after updating their computer saying that it
> works.
>
> Should I always update windows?

V wrote:

> Before you do the update though it would pay for you to click the
> link for more information and check out the known issues or caveats
> so you could possibly avoid issues before they arise.
>
> For example one of the updates this month tell you that you could
> have issues if you have a certian video card installed. If you
> upgrade the drivers for said video card you will fix the issues
> before they become issues.

supanatral wrote:
> What about when it comes to updating Servers? When should/shouldn't
> your update your servers?

No difference. Common sense and preparing for it.

[Harry Johnston [MVP]]

supanatral wrote:

> What about when it comes to updating Servers? When should/shouldn't your
> update your servers?

There are only a few additionals factor to take into account when updating
servers: how much trouble it is to reboot, and how serious it would be if the
server failed.

I look after a number of servers at my job. For most of them, a reboot isn't a
problem provided I do it at a suitable time of day. On these I usually install
security updates shortly after they are released each month, along with any
non-security updates that are now available - with a few exceptions such as
Silverlight and unnecessary .NET frameworks.

For a few servers - the file server and the terminal servers - reboots have to
be announced in advance and do cause some inconvenience. In these cases I only
install updates if at least one is actually necessary. For example, Internet
Explorer updates are not necessary on the file server, as IE is not being used
it does not represent a security threat.

If there is at least one update that needs to be installed, I will schedule an
outage. During that outage I will install all security and non-security
updates, with the same exceptions mentioned before, that are available at the
time. That is, I don't only install the necessary updates, but all available
updates. This is so that the server is in the configuration that will have been
most thoroughly tested by Microsoft and will be most common on everybody else's
machines. It reduces the risk that I will encounter some uncommon problem
caused by a particular combination of updates.

In some environments, where the consequences of a server failure would be
particularly severe, it may be necessary to install updates on test servers and
run some sort of testing protocol to make sure everything still works before
they can be installed on the production servers.

Harry.