Optional Updates


  1. Posts : 161
    windows 7 Home Premium
       #1

    Optional Updates


    Any danger in not installing optional updates? I have nine of them waiting in line and my machine is working just fine. Pros and cons, please?
    Thanks in advance
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 9,600
    Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit
       #2

    Optional means just that: optional. It won't hurt to not install them. I hide anything to do with Bing and, if I were to unhide them, there would be many more times nine setting there.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 4,566
    Windows 10 Pro
       #3

    Sometimes there are driver updates included in those optional updates for some hardware that might improve performance and address issues or problems, but if your running well-Don't fix what isn't broken.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 2,686
    Windows 8.1 Pro w/Media Center 64bit, Windows 7 HP 64bit
       #4

    If you right click the update and view details and then look at the KB article it will show what the updates is and then you can make an informed decision if you want it or not.

    Jim
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 161
    windows 7 Home Premium
    Thread Starter
       #5

    Thanks, guys. One of the main reasons I asked the question was that the optionals are offering me IE10 and IE11. Right now I am using IE9 and I'm not sure whether an "upgrade" is a good thing or not because I have read quite a few horror stories about both 10 and 11.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 17,322
    Win 10 Pro x64
       #6

    tonyvella said:
    Thanks, guys. One of the main reasons I asked the question was that the optionals are offering me IE10 and IE11. Right now I am using IE9 and I'm not sure whether an "upgrade" is a good thing or not because I have read quite a few horror stories about both 10 and 11.
    You don't have to install those if you like IE9, just right click on them and hide them.

    What are the other ones?

    Phone Man offered some sound advice about making informed decisions as well.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 161
    windows 7 Home Premium
    Thread Starter
       #7

    Here's what it's all about.
    And the descriptions they offer don't exactly explain much if anything.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 9,600
    Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit
       #8

    tonyvella said:
    Thanks, guys. One of the main reasons I asked the question was that the optionals are offering me IE10 and IE11. Right now I am using IE9 and I'm not sure whether an "upgrade" is a good thing or not because I have read quite a few horror stories about both 10 and 11.
    I prefer to wait a few months to update when a new version of IE comes out to give M$ time to sort out any bugs that may affect certain hardware/software combinations. Considering the number of hardware/software combinations that are possible, I feel M$ does a pretty good job with the IE upgrades but there is no way they can anticipate all of them so they need time to react to the inevitable bugs. IE 10 has been out long enough for most of the bugs to have been dealt with although, when I updated, Avast's WebRep suddenly wouldn't play well with WOT and would cause IE 10 to crash frequently; I had to turn off WebRep to fix a problem (it was a choice between than and turning off WOT and WOT works better so I kept it).

    I'm close to pulling the trigger on IE 11 but want to give it a bit more time. So far, the only complaint I've seen with IE 11 is many Gadgets will not work when it is installed. That's not a problem for me since I don't use Gadgets. In fact, M$ has been recommending for some time that people not use Gadgets since some can be vulnerable to malware. The fact that Gadgets and IE11 do not always play well together may be M$ trying to force people to stop using them or it just may be a fluke.

    If you have your OS and Programs installed on a drive or partition separate from your data, you can always make an image of it just before you update. That way, if you do run into problems after the update, all you have to do is restore the image and you are back to where you were before updating. Imaging and restoring images is similar to using System Restore but I've found imaging to be far more reliable. If I'm speaking Greek to you on imaging, let us know and we can direct you to threads and tutorials to help you sort it out. It sounds far more complicated than it actually is.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 542
    Windows 7 Pro 64bit
       #9

    you may want to install the updates for your Microsoft hardware and for your printer so the proper driver is installed, I would also install IE10 as I heard that is was more secure then IE9, but I would wait before upgrading to IE11 until the bugs in it are all worked out, I hid it and will keep it hidden for a few more months
      My Computer


 

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