Windows XP Autoupdates & Autoupdating

Windows XP is designed to help with your computing. One of its main features is its ability to automatically download updates (service packs, security patches, etc.) and store them or automatically apply them.

The Automatic Updates service gives you three options:

1. Automatically download updates and notify you to install them.
2. Notify you to download updates and notify you to selectively install them. (Recommended)
3. Do not automatically download updates.

We recommend the second option primarily because we want to know the updates Microsoft is downloading and sometimes prevent certain updates from installing until we know they will be safe for our systems. When you first start using Windows XP, you probably keep seeing this information balloon popup:

Click inside the "Stay current with automatic updates" balloon will bring up the Automatic Updates Wizard:

Click the Next> button to choose which Automatic Updates setup you would like on your system.

Choose the option you want for your system, click Next and then Finish.

That's it! You've setup your Automatic Updates.

If you would like to change or see your Automatic Updates settings, you can right-click on "My Computer" and choose properties, or open the System control panel.

Here you can change your setting or just view what you have already selected.

If you choose for your updates to download automatically, you occasionally may see a popup balloon telling you the updates are ready to be installed and when you click you will view a window similar to this one:

You can unselect items or leave them all and click on Install.

Your Automatic Updates settings are finished!

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