How to turn ON/OFF Automatic Updates in Windows Vista?

If you are using Windows Vista operating system, you should download latest patches and upgrades for your computer. Microsoft regularly releases security fixes and upgrades for Vista via Internet. Most of those updates are important, because the help in keeping a PC safe and stable. You can automatically get Vista updates by using in-built Windows Update service. If you are not sure about updating Windows, read on. This article will tell you how to use (turn on/off) Automatic updates in Windows Vista.

Tun on Automatic Updates in Windows Vista:

1. Click Start button.
2. Open All Programs and click Windows Update.
3. Open Change Settings from the left pane.
4. Choose “Install updates automatically (recommended). You can also use second option which says “Download updates but let me choose whether to install them”.
5. Check the option for including  recommended updates.
6. Press OK button. If Windows asks for confirmation or administrator password, confirm or type the password.

That’s it. You have just turned on the Windows automatic updating service for Vista. What about turning off automatic updates? If you want to turn off automatic updating in Windows Vista, simply pick last option (Never check for updates) in step 4.

Windows Update options in Vista:

The Windows Update settings include several options. Which one is right for you? Well, that entirely depends on you. If you are serious about security threats & don’t mind background downloading of files, use recommended automatic update option. Otherwise select any one of the rest options. Following options are available in Change Settings page:

• Install updates automatically (recommended): This will automate everything. Updates will be downloaded and installed automatically.
• Download updates but let me choose whether to install them: This option means updates will be downloaded automatically, but not installed. Windows will prompt you to install downloaded updates. You can do that when you are free or your computer is not busy.
• Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them: Checking this option means Automatic Update will also look for available updates. If found, all available updates will be listed before you. Then you can choose to download all or only the selected few. If you know what you are doing, this options will save few bandwidth and hard disk space.
• Never check for updates (not recommended): The last option is not recommended, as checking that will stop the automatic update process. But some user find frequent automatic updates annoying and prefer to keep that disabled. This option is for those people. Also, if you want to update manually, you can keep automatic updates disabled.