Updates take time and bandwidth to download and install. Furthermore, sometimes they're worse than the problems they purportedly fix. An April update , known as KB, made many users' computers virtually unusable until they were able to roll back and uninstall the glitchy code. Another update, released in February , wreaked havoc on countless systems before the company yanked it — permanently — from download sites.
Microsoft prioritizes updates according to their importance. If you see "critical" updates, it's vital that you install them as soon as possible.
For example, in March , the company warned users to install an emergency update to protect against extreme security vulnerabilities. Without the update, they said, a hacker could potentially take control of your computer. For those kinds of situations, install updates immediately.
The same goes for other updates that Microsoft designates critical. But for others, you can be a bit more deliberate. Start by creating a recovery drive as a backup of sorts, just in case a future update procedure goes awry. With the introduction of Windows 10 in , Microsoft said that it was the "last" version of Windows ever — the company indicated that it would never release Windows 11 or 12, ever.
Instead, it plans to simply update Windows 10 for all of time. Every six months, the new "feature updates" are released, filled with new capabilities, tweaks, and fixes meant to improve your overall experience. Sign up for our Newsletter! Critical Security Updates are perhaps the most important updates to apply to your system.
Ignoring these could leave your computer or server extremely vulnerable to hackers and malicious code. Critical Updates — Critical Updates fix any major issue that is found in Microsoft products that could cause software errors or unexpected behavior.
Software Updates — Non-critical issues, such as extended features and minor bugs, are addressed using Software Updates. Service Packs — Service Packs contain a rollup of all patches to date for a specific piece of software or operating system and usually have additional feature changes. Why Should I Update? How Can I Stay Secure? There are several methods for maintaining your Microsoft updates, depending on your technical expertise Use Automatic Updates — All recent Microsoft Operating Systems have an Automatic Update feature built-in that allows you to define a time to download and install High Priority updates.
Although simple to configure there are several drawbacks to using this method: All High Priority updates get applied without any intervention. While this may sound like a good idea, updates can often conflict with existing software or may fail and cause other issues. Other updates are not applied automatically, such as some software updates and service packs. We have found that it is common to see client computers missing several beneficial updates because no one took the time to install them manually.
Automatic Updates can be disabled by the end-user, and often are. Without a centralized method for managing updates, they can easily be disabled by an end-user and leave the entire network vulnerable.
This is very common and is the cause of many out-of-date machines. NET Framework, or the main platform. Even if you do not run the respective software, it is a risk not to patch it, simply because it is installed on your system. Note that these updates are required, even if you are running anti-malware or anti-virus software, as that software may not sufficiently protect you from Windows security issues. Potential consequences of not installing security updates are damaged software, loss of data, or identity theft.
Every year, malware causes damage of millions of dollars worldwide. Vulnerabilities can potentially be exploited within hours of them becoming publicly known. So once a security update is available, you should immediately install the fix to protect your system from malware attacks.
The second type of update addresses more general bugs and issues of the Windows operating system. These updates typically contain several fixes in one go. Below is the generic description of an update published in February Install this update to resolve issues in Windows. For a complete listing of the issues that are included in this update, see the associated Microsoft Knowledge Base article for more information.
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