Updating Your Microsoft Windows Software: The Whys & Hows of Keeping Your Windows Safe

If you were one of the people to be hit with MS Blaster, chances are that you now realize how important it is to update your Windows software on a regular basis. As soon as a vulnerability is discovered in the Windows operating system, virus writers and hackers get busy to try and exploit that vulnerability - because they know that even though Microsoft releases an update, that not everyone will go and update their software, leaving millions of computers to be affected. (You can read more about MS Blaster at MyMommyBiz)

How do you know when there is a vulnerability? There is often discussion about it in the media, as there was in the month before Blaster made its appearance. You can also go to http://www.microsoft.com/security/ to read the lastest bulletins, or go to http://www.microsoft.com/security/security_bulletins/decision.asp where you can sign up to receive an email when a new update is available. But if you feel you are prone to forget to update your windows software, you can set your computer to allow it to automatically download critical updates for you, and it will present you with a "click here" to install it.

How often should updates be done? Every time a critical update becomes available. You should check at least once a month, and when there seems to be more viruses than usual going around, some will check for new updates every single day. Taking twenty seconds to check is much easier than having to recover when your computer has been exploited.

Now that you know you should update your Windows software, how should you go about doing that? Here are the instructions for Windows XP, but you will find that they are similar for whatever version of Windows you are running.

1. Close all programs.
2. Make sure you're online.
3. Click start.
4. Select All Programs.
5. Click on Windows Update (usually near the top).
6. Click "Scan for updates."
7. You'll see both critical and optional updates. Click the Critical Update box.
8. Click the gray Download box in the upper right corner.
9. Click "Start download."
10. Accept any other options.
11. Once all components are downloaded, restart your computer.
12. Update your browser monthly or whenever a big virus hits.

If you have never updated your Windows before, or it has been quite some time since you last updated, you will likely have to go back several times to receive all the updates (possibly with some computer restarts in between) as some of the critical pack installs need to be installed on their own.

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