I turned off my automatic updating after hearing some caused more problems than they solved. Of course, now I will not know which patches after that will be deemed "critical". I tried looking that up at Microsoft's Web site, but they do not indicate this. Have I missed anything?
Well, you can't install patches individually anymore, anyway, so your question is moot. It's all or nothing, though you have two choices of what "all" means. For each month you can install all security patches, or you can install all security plus recommended updates. In neither case can you cherry-pick individual patches like we used to be able to do.
If you choose the security-only updates, they come month by month, so you have to install (or skip) one for each month.
If you choose all-plus-recommended, those come as a rollup, so you only need to install the latest month to get all of the prior updates, as well. (Note that also means you can't avoid the update for a particular month, because any monthly rollup will give you all prior months at the same time.)
Be aware that Windows Update can only be used with the rollups. It cannot be used with the security-only updates. You have to download and install those manually, so if you only want the security updates you may as well leave automatic updates turned off.
To keep abreast of the security-only updates, follow the
News forum. Brink always posts an article there when each update becomes available. For instance,
Here's the thread on the January update.
Remember that if you choose security-only, they are not rollups so subsequent updates don't include prior months. You need to install one for each month, or skip it if that month's update looks like one of its patches would be problematic for your computer. Of course, that means you won't get any of the other patches for that month, either, but that's the way it is. Better to go without a few patches if it means your system will keep working.
