Windows Update

During the early days of Windows, the operating system was the direct target of most malware creators and Microsoft has worked a lot on hardening the operating system, creating and delivering security patches to its users as timely as they possibly could. Today, Windows is a more secure operating system and the malware creators’ focus is now on finding and using vulnerabilities for popular Windows applications. Therefore, keeping your applications up-to-date has become very important for having a secure computing experience. But... how do you keep your applications up-to-date, without manually searching for updates once very few weeks? This analysis aims to answer this question and propose some good tools for this task.

NOTE: This article has been updated based on feedback received from users and the developers of some of the applications included in my tests.

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 has been available since February 22nd, for those interested in installing it. Due to the fact that Microsoft did not roll it out as a mandatory update and that it doesn’t really include new features, there hasn’t been too much fuss about it - except certain experts recommending to wait for a few more months and not install it yet. We took a bit of time until we installed it ourselves and now, that we’ve been through this “experience", we are ready to share what we learned about it with you: new functionality introduced by Windows 7 SP1, prep-work recommended prior to its installation, ways to install it and how to get help in case of issues.

If you buy a laptop from a different country and Windows 7 comes pre-installed, most probably you will want to change the display language to the one used in your country. The same when, for example, you want to give a computer as a gift to someone else, who might not be keen on using Windows 7 in English and they prefer their local language. For such scenarios, you need to know how to install and change the display language. The procedure is different, depending on the version of Windows 7 you have installed. In this tutorial we will cover the procedure you need to follow when using Ultimate and Enterprise editions of Windows 7. For other editions, stay tuned for future tutorials.

I will continue our series on Windows Update with an article showing how to manage installed updates and how to restore hidden ones so they are again available for installation on your Windows 7 PC. If you are interested about this subject, don't hesitate to click on read more.

I will continue our series about working with Windows Update in Windows 7 and show how to configure its settings. As you will see, there are plenty of options available for configuration that allow you to have this tool working the way you desire in just a few seconds.

Windows Update is one of the tools which were redesigned completely in Windows Vista. Instead of having to browse to a specific Microsoft web page, the whole update process was managed directly by the operating system. Windows 7 keeps the same approach and introduces a very small number of changes to this process, mostly cosmetic. In this tutorial I will show how to use Windows Update to check, select and install updates. I'll also show how to prevent certain unwanted updates from being installed. If you have skipped from Windows XP directly to Windows 7, then this tutorial is a must read.