Several years ago, Microsoft decided to set a schedule for releasing updates to the public. Since a lot of the updates require rebooting computers, businesses and individuals were finding it difficult to predict when updates would be available for critical systems. Sometimes one update and reboot would be completed, then new updates would be released within a few days requiring another round of installs and reboots. The decision then to just postpone those updates until a later date would leave systems vulnerable to the problems which the updates aimed to fix.
Microsoft decided on the second Tuesday of every month as the day to release new updates, thus the name “Patch Tuesday” came into being. This week has the second Tuesday for December and Microsoft released a batch of security updates right on schedule. The Microsoft website at Microsoft.com/security has more details about the specifics. Should you apply the monthly security updates? Yes. The neat thing is that Windows makes it fairly easy to automate the process. For Windows XP, right-click on My Computer, select Properties, and click the Automatic Updates tab. I like to have the updates automatically downloaded, but let me decide when to install them.
When updates are ready, a notification alert shows on the taskbar near the clock which lets me know that updates are ready.
Click on the update shield to see the updates and proceed to the installation.
A new window will open, and if you select Custom Install, you can see the specific updates before installing them (and have the option to choose not to install a particular update at this time).
One other option I like (for laptops in particular) is the ability to apply updates before shutting down the computer. If I have not installed the updates and choose to Shut Down or Turn Off the computer, the option will be available to install updates before the powering off occurs. This option is available if updates have already been downloaded, but not previously installed.
Keep your computer more secure by getting in the habit of applying Microsoft security updates every month.