Windows Updates Causes Crashes

It appears that some of the windows updates have been causing my computer to crash. I had it on automatic updates previously and it crashed several times. System restore didn't work and my computer guy had to do a repair install for me several times, as it kept crashing on him also. We now have the automatic update feature turned off and everything seems to be working fine. There are about 65 Important updates and 25 Optional updates sitting in my updates location. My question is, going forward, what to I really need to update and how should I proceed. There are 2 updates concerning Silverlight, 1 Visual Studio, 41 Windows 7, 9 in Microsoft works and 20 for Office 2007. Is there any known problems with specific ones that might have cause a computer to crash.

Brayton

Only you can decide which of those updates you need & which you can do without, but the only way to spend time reading about what each one does is to run updates manually from the Microsoft Update website say, once a week or once a month, with 'automatic updates' disabled as you've already done. That approach is the one I use since an automatic update scewed up my Windows XP install 4 years ago.

It is not unknown for some Windows Updates to do this, even Microsoft themselves have put their hand up to admit it when it's occurred, but I've no idea which ones specifically. A particular update's 'bugginess' only comes to light when a sufficient number of people have given it negative feedback and suffered similar symptoms. It could be several weeks or months before a pattern emerges and the 'rogue' update becomes general knowledge.

So if I am going to update a couple updates at a time how do I know which ones to start with. They are not listed in any date based sequence or subject based, other than overall general categories. Does it make any difference or should I just take them in a random fashion based on what I think applies to my computer use. Thanks for your help.
Brayton

Brayton said:

So if I am going to update a couple updates at a time how do I know which ones to start with. They are not listed in any date based sequence or subject based, other than overall general categories. Does it make any difference or should I just take them in a random fashion based on what I think applies to my computer use. Thanks for your help.
Brayton

Brayton,

Microsoft gives updates usually for a very good reason..
I suggest you read the blurb with each update given to you.Then decide which you will do first etc.

Leave the optional updates till last. You may find what is offered is not necessary in your case.

Well, it took a while but I managed to install about 40 updates, doing them a couple at a time, as suggested. I started with the older ones and worked my way up to the most recent ones. It worked, and all were downloaded and installed without anymore crashes or difficulty. So if anyone else is experiencing similar problems, I would suggest this approach.
Brayton

Brayton said:

Well, it took a while but I managed to install about 40 updates, doing them a couple at a time, as suggested. I started with the older ones and worked my way up to the most recent ones. It worked, and all were downloaded and installed without anymore crashes or difficulty. So if anyone else is experiencing similar problems, I would suggest this approach.
Brayton

This method is used by quite a few of us.
Thank you for posting back & letting us know of your success.
Safe surfing.