Since you want your computer to be as secure as it can possibly be, you have Windows set to automatically install updates as soon as they're available, right? Well, if you do, you will have noticed that Windows can be pretty pushy about wanting to restart. In fact, it will pop up a reminder every 10 minutes until you finally give in, or worse, accidentally press the space bar when the update dialog pops up and initiate a restart at the exact wrong time.
To avoid this annoying situation, check out Brad Isaac's free utility called Leave Me Alone! Leave Me Alone! allows you to temporarily turn off the restart nag window until you actually do restart. This allows you to finish what you were doing and choose when to restart, rather than being bullied into restarting at the least convenient time.
Leave Me Alone! works on both Windows XP and Windows Vista.
If you've got Windows XP SP2, you might want to check the good ole Windows Update page today. A week after delaying the launch of Windows XP SP3, Microsoft today released the update through Windows Update. That means even if you don't go out of your way to download it, there's a good chance you'll wind up downloading the service pack in the next few days if your computer is configured to install automatic updates.
The reason Microsoft pushed back the launch for a week was because the company found an incompatibility with its Dynamics Retail Management System. If you're a business owner using that software, Microsoft has added a filter that will keep your system from automatically downloading SP3.
Most of the changes in SP3 are under the hood, meaning you may or may not really notice any changes once SP3 is installed. But along with a few new features like Network Access Protection and Black Hole router detection, the service pack includes pretty much every important security update and hotfix since SP2, so we'd highly recommend installing it. If you want all the gritty details, you can check out Microsoft's overview of all the major updates included in SP3.
If you have Windows Update configured to automatically download and install hotfixes, security updates, service packs, and other updates, it's not always easy to see exactly what you're installing or what's already been packed onto your PC. WinUpdatesList is a simple application that brings up a list of all the updates that have been applied to your PC.
You can run WinUpdatesList simply by downloading and unpacking a ZIP file and clicking on the executable. There's also a version with an installer/uninstaller available if you'd rather go that route. The program presents a detailed list of each update, what programs it affects, and a brief description, which may or may not be utterly meaningless. But if you double-click an update, you can get a link to the Microsoft knowlede base article, which will (occasionally) make order out of the madness of Microsoft's hotfix naming scheme.
Microsoft is set to release Windows XP SP3 through Windows Update tomorrow. But if you just can't wait to get your hands on the latest and greatest OS update from Microsoft (not that Vista isn't great...), it looks like a number of folks have found the download links that will let you grab the update from Microsoft's servers.
Microsoft released SP3 to manufacturers last week, and shortly after that, you could find the service pack on a variety of BitTorrent sites. But we've always been a bit wary of downloading something as important as an operating system update from BitTorrent. There's always a chance you're really downloading a trojan packed up to look like a service pack installer.
Note that the full installer weighs in at just over 300MB. If you wait to get SP3 through Windows update, there's a good chance your download will be significantly smaller since you probably already have some of the updates included in SP3 on your PC. The service pack includes a number of features and hotfixes that Microsoft has already released to SP2 customers.
The link above provides a download link for the English version of SP3. If you're looking for Chinese, German, French, Russian, or Japanese download links, GHacks has you covered.
In related news, Microsoft says it absolutely, positively has no plans to keep selling Windows XP after June 30th, despite recent comments from Steve Ballmer that seemed to indicate the company might reconsider. Meanwhile, Dell plans to continue offering Windows XP for a few more years by selling customers Windows Vista licenses and then giving them the option to downgrade to XP.
A few weeks ago we could have sworn that Microsoft was getting ready to release the final build of Windows XP SP3 by the end of March. But today Microsoft released Windows XP SP3 RC2 refresh, which basically means it's a slightly modified version of the release candidate made available in February.
There aren't really many new features or surprises in the latest build. The refresh basically has a different build number, includes all previous updates, and includes support for HD audio and fixes some Windows Update issues. But today's release does indicate that Microsoft is still tinkering, which leads us to believe it'll probably be at least a few more days, weeks, or months until the final version of Windows XP SP3 is released.
In order to download the 120MB service pack from Windows Update, you need to add a registry key by downloading and installing an executable application from Microsoft.
If you had any doubt that Internet Explorer 8 beta 1 was released as a developer preview and wasn't really meant for general consumption, consider this: You can't access Windows Update using Internet Explorer 8. If you try to visit the Windows Update page, you'll get a message telling you that you need to use Internet Explorer 5 or later.
Microsoft plans to add IE8 support to its software update page, but it's not available yet. In the meantime, you can get your updates by clicking the Emulate IE7 button in IE8 and restarting your browser.
While most Windows Vista users we know can't wait to get their hands on Service Pack 1 in the hopes of improving stability, reliability and performance, some people might want to hold off on updating their computers. For example, company IT managers who aren't looking forward to deploying an update that could mess up some of the software on hundreds of machines.
So Microsoft has issued a tool that will let users block Windows Update from automatically installing service packs. The tool isn't actually Windows Vista specific. It also works with Windows XP (to block SP3), and Windows Server 2003 (to block SP2).
There's no option to prevent your PC from downloading updates permanently. The Windows Server 2003 blocker will only work through March, while the Vista and XP tools will keep you from downloading the updates for up to 12 months following the official release of XP SP3 and Vista SP1.
Once upon a time, AutoPatcher was the go to program for downloading and installing Windows Updates without connecting to Microsoft's servers. Say you've got a bunch of PCs that you need to update and you don't want to take the time to connect each to the internet and download updates one by one. Just use AutoPatcher, download the latest updates, burn the results to a CD and carry it from computer to computer.
Now the AutoPatcher team is back, with a new utility that downloads updates directly from Microsoft's servers. AutoPatcher Updater is still in early beta, but it appears that the developers are getting around Microsoft's objections by requiring you to download updates on on the machine which you are updating. You can't make those updates portable by burning them to a CD for carrying from PC to PC. Once you've downloaded the updates, you can run AutoPatcher.exe to install them. While this might all sound a lot like the built in Windows Update utility, the new AutoPatcher at least gives you a bit more control over your updates.
You know, we're starting to think that by the time Microsoft actually gets around to releasing Windows Vista SP1, all the major updates will already have been made available as update packs and hotfixes.
Microsoft has just released yet another compatibility, reliability, and stability pack for Vista. Here are some of the highlights:
Extended battery life on mobile devices
Improved stability of computers that use a UPS
Improves reliability when opening a startup application menu
Improves wireless network service stability
Shortens startup time
Shortens recovery time after a period of inactivity
Fixes a compatibility issue with some third-party anti-virus apps
Windows XP and Vista each have a Windows Update utility that can automatically download and install critical system updates. Most of the time, this is a good thing. But if you want to install updates on your own schedule, or if you're a privacy freak advocate and just don't want Microsoft accessing your PC without your consent, you can turn off automatic updates. Or so we thought.
It turns out that Microsoft pushed out a series of updates last month that went out to internet-connected computers (you know, most of them) even if automatic updates were turned off. It doesn't look like the company did anything really scary like install keylogging software on your PC. But it's a bit surprising nonetheless. Why give customers an option to disable automatic updates if you plan occasionally send them out anyway?
According to Windows Update Program Manager Nate Clinton, what's going on is that the Windows Update application itself needs updating at times. And there's no way to update without installing and downloading an update, so that next time you want to download and install some other update, it will go smoothly. Got that?
Still, it would have been nice if Microsoft had made a public announcement before pushing any unwanted new software to our computers.
Since you want your computer to be as secure as it can possibly be, you have Windows set to automatically install updates as soon as they're available, right? Well, if you do, you will have noticed that Windows can be pretty pushy about wanting to restart. In fact, it will pop up a reminder every 10 minutes until you finally give in, or worse, accidentally press the space bar when the update dialog pops up and initiate a restart at the exact wrong time. 
