Keep Your Guard Up

This seems like a good time to mention something. I’ve only seen it in one other place and it was a place not known for cutting-edge thoughts.

And that is: Check your Windows Auto-Update settings NOW!

Hit Windows+Pause/Break keys and click on the ‘Automatic Updates’ tab, then check to see how it’s set up. Odds are, you haven’t even thought avout it for some time, if ever. That could end up costing you a lot of tears and sweat, if things aren’t set up right.

Now, why? Well, we should all realize by now that the major XP service pack 2 is going to be released next week. And by now you should have heard that some of the things that it wants to install can break your system. Even if you want to go ahead and install the entire service pack, you’d best take the time to do a full system backup. Now for the threat and the (partial) solution.

It’s very large and there are a lot of individual updates in it. IF you have Automatic Updates set to download in the background and automatically install, then it may move right in and you’ll never know it until it tells you to reboot your system and that may be too late. A much better way to go is to set your updates to ask permission before they install or even before they download. That will give you warning and th ability to tell it ‘NO!’.

Doing nothing is not an option, unless you know for sure that your system is safe.