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3 reasons to run Windows Update, and other Software Updates!

Is your computer running slowly, buggy, and gets infected with virus programs often? Updating Windows and your computer’s software may solve your problem. Updating Windows can fix problems, speed up your computer, and make it more safer.

Usually Updates for Windows and installed software like MS Office fix problems which currently exist for Windows and Windows software until you update Windows or install the latest version of your software. The updates replace buggy files with a new version of the file which fix the bug which can cause your computer or a program to freeze, crash, slow down, or interfere with other programs installed on your computer.

Windows Updates can also speed up your computer if the new updates fix performance problems with Windows, MS Office, and other Microsoft Software. Sometimes, Windows also update your driver software for your video card, sound card, network card, chipset, and other hardware. Updating your driver software for your computer hardware can speed up your computer games, and make them more stable since newer versions of driver software for your video card and sound card usually fixes bugs in previous versions, and can have newer features which optimizes the performance of your computer hardware when using them for newer games and software.

If you run Microsoft Security Essentials anti-virus, you can run Windows Update to get the latest security updates for Microsoft Security Essentials. Windows update also releases Windows security updates for Windows, Microsoft office, Visual Studio, and other Microsoft software. Security Updates fixes known problems which virus programs, hackers, malware, and spyware can use to infect your computer, and make your computer slow and unsecure.

Usually Windows Updates install updates for Windows and Microsoft software automatically, but it is still a good idea to manually check for Windows update by going to your start menu and typing in Windows Update in the search textbox if your computer uses Windows Vista and 7. Some updates like Internet Explorer 9, Microsoft Security Essentials antivirus, service packs, hardware drivers and Silverlight only will install if you agree to install them on your PC.

Service packs are just a large amount of updates, and bug, performance and security fixes which fix a lot of problems at once when you do a windows update.

If you run Windows XP or older, you need to use Internet Explorer and go to update.microsoft.com to install the latest updates with Internet Explorer+Windows Updates. I recommend upgrading to Windows 7 if you still use Windows XP or older operating system like Windows 2000. Windows 7 is more secure, stable, runs better on newer hardware, and has a better user interface then previous versions of Microsoft Windows Operating System.

Before you do a Windows Update, it is best to back up your important computer files like documents, photos, music, etc just in case a Windows Updates breaks Windows which is rare. If in the rare chance your computer becomes unstable after a Windows Update, you can do a system restore by typing system restore in the search box on Windows 7 start menu, and pick a restore point before you updated Windows via Windows Update.

It is also a good idea to regularly keep your other software like web browsers, web browser add-ons, media players, office suite, media players, and other software up to date by installing the latest version since the latest version of software usually comes with bug fixes which make your software more stable, fast, and safer to use.

For more information about Windows Update go to johnsonyip.com/updating-windows-computer.htm

7 comments… add one
  • Techlogon.com May 24, 2011, 1:46 pm

    Good article – always worth updating Windows for security and performance improvements and also important to update the other software like web browsers and Flash/Java because older versions are more at risk of virus infection.

    I would caution against routine use of Windows Update for driver updates unless you have no alternative (e.g. you really can’t find the right driver on the hardware manufacturer’s website) because Windows Update doesn’t always install the right driver for your particular hardware so may leave it not working – until you roll back the driver to your older version.

  • Johnson Yip May 24, 2011, 7:42 pm

    I agree using Windows Update to install Drivers can be kind of tricky. I once had Windows Update install a card reader driver for a card reader which I did not own which made my memory card reader non-functional until I uninstalled the card reader driver which Windows Update installed.

  • helen.hunt100179 May 31, 2011, 7:41 am

    Since computers are a prone to various worn and virus threats it is best to run Windows update in order to maximize internet security on your computer.

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  • Michael June 25, 2011, 4:43 pm

    Thanks for the info..I always thought that the Windows Update is just there to bug me while using my laptop, now I can see why it’s really helpful.

  • Johnson Yip June 26, 2011, 11:22 pm

    I agree with you Michael, Windows Update is poorly designed in that it constantly bug you to update Windows, and even when you installed the updates it tells you to restart your computer, and if you don’t Windows bugs you every 10 minutes.

    I Wish MS finds a more user friendly and less annoying way to Update Windows.

  • Eduardo Costa March 30, 2012, 12:13 am

    I cannot understand why I don’t have any of those problems with Linux, or McOS-x. I mean, my Linux installation is always fast, starts fast, shut down fast, has no virus, install software fast, etc. The same can be said about McOS-x. I believe that Microsoft has a share on Apple. Therefore, why they don’t use the McOS-x solution to the problem of slow OS, virus, etc.? You may say that McOS-x runs in a standard hardware. However, Linux works as well as McOS-x. I think that Microsoft may learn with these successful systems. It people there refuse to learn, and insist in pushing slow and buggy solutions like dotNet, well, I believe that a lot of people will stop using Windows.

    Until three months ago, I was a Windows user. Then I tryed Zorin, a Linux distribution. Wow! I believe that I will never go back to Windows. It starts fast, shut down fast, runs fast. Installation is a bliss. The last thing I remember from Windows is to spend 2 hours uninstalling calibre. In Linux, the same operation takes a few seconds.

    By the way, I always update my OS. When I was a Windows 7 user, I would leave Windows updating the system, before shut down. I also let Zorin update. Windows takes from 15 minutes to half an hour to update. Zorin performs its updates in background, without bothering me after the password.

    My sugestion is that Windows create a kind of sudo, to replace the antiviruses.

  • Johnson Yip March 30, 2012, 7:08 pm

    I use Lubuntu 11.10 with the LXDE lightweight theme, and it never given gave me any major problems like viruses, disk fragmentation, random start-up programs from 3rd party software like AIM, YIM, Winamp, a lot of temporary internet and system files using up Gigabytes of free space, etc and other common problems found in Windows.

    Mac OS X is based on UNIX, so I think it is pretty secure, and stable like Linux which also shares a lot of features in UNIX. Linux and UNIX is used for many web and file server which need to be stable and fast all the time.

    I agree those Windows Updates take very long compared to Linux Mint, Ubuntu, and other Linux Distros I tried. I also don’t like those pop-up windows which notify me to restart my computer.

    I think Microsoft future plan is to make a cloud operating system like ChromeOS, so you pay them a yearly fee to manage your data, and maintain their hardware which they rent to you. They already have cloud apps like Office 365, SkyDrive, Xbox Live, etc.

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