Today is Patch Tuesday! Run Windows Updates.

[Wiz Feinberg]

Today is Patch Tuesday for Microsoft and Windows Updates. Today, Microsoft released 4 Critical updates for Windows, Windows Media Player and Encoder and at least 2 for Microsoft Office products (GDIplus.dll again). Also released was an updated Malicious Software Removal Tool. The GDI+ patch is extremely important, due to exploits in images already in-the-wild!

All users of Windows 2000 and newer are affected by one or more of the vulnerabilities covered by these patches, or the removal tool. Please check to see if you have received your updates. Your computer may have rebooted itself after installing these updates.

[Richard Sinkler]

I have automatic updates turned on and it is set to download at 3am (default time I suppose). As my computer is normally turned off at that time, does my computer still download the updates?

How do you force the downloads at any given time?

[Wiz Feinberg]

I have automatic updates turned on and it is set to download at 3am (default time I suppose). As my computer is normally turned off at that time, does my computer still download the updates?

How do you force the downloads at any given time?

You can run Windows, or Microsoft Updates manually, from the Start Menu, or from Internet Explorer.

To run from the Start Menu, use this path (WinXP):

Start > All Programs > look up in the right links section for Windows Update.

To run Windows Updates from MSIE:

Tools > Windows Update.

Sometimes the automatic updates will wait until the time set in the scheduler to check for updates. They should continue the task if it is missed, upon startup, but maybe they do, maybe they don't. I almost always go after the updates manually, around 2 PM EST, on Patch Tuesdays.

[Jack Stoner]

I got the updates this morning. I got 9 total, for MS Office and for Vista.

[Kenny Pryor]

wHEN i RUN THE UPDATES, IT SLOWS MY COMPUTER DOWN.
IS THIS NORMAL???

[Wiz Feinberg]

wHEN i RUN THE UPDATES, IT SLOWS MY COMPUTER DOWN.
IS THIS NORMAL???

Kenny;
What is your Windows version and service pack level? Are you fully up to date with all Windows Updates, including the Windows Update .dll itself (wups2.dll)?

Read through some of the pages in this Google Search for wups2.dll, which is the newest version of Windows Update. People running Windows XP, with SP2 or 3, and who have had to run a repair re-installation will encounter Windows Updates problems until the re-register wups2.dll.