Do you do the Windows Updates on your workstation ?

[Stefan Antonescu]

I'm doing the updates with CS 5.5 and all the other software but should I also update Windows Pro 64 ? Everytime ? Once in a while ? Never ? I'm looking to avoid compatibility issues...

What do you guys do ?

 

[Elsie N]

I update Windows Security Essentials first thing if I have to get online to update Redcine X Pro or other software. Sometimes Windows has an update that makes Windows run more efficiently, but I don't install non-essential updates.

 

[L. Langer]

95% of the stuff is security updates. If you are on a network that is connected to the Internet but not actually going to the Internet through IE or whatever applies, you really don't need to worry about installing anything from Windows Updates other than updated .NET runtimes and whatever is related to the programs you use.

 

[Zakaree Sandberg]

i do all my music on windows.. automatic update last week completely EFFED my system.. could no longer boot.

Had to do a fresh install.. Now I'm having issues trying to relink my songs

 

[Stefan Antonescu]

95% of the stuff is security updates. If you are on a network that is connected to the Internet but not actually going to the Internet through IE or whatever applies, you really don't need to worry about installing anything from Windows Updates other than updated .NET runtimes and whatever is related to the programs you use.

I'm connected directly to the internet. I use Chrome to browse and Kaspersky Suite to protect the system.

I want to avoid exactly what happened to Zakaree... :/

 

[PatrickW]

If your workstation is completely on a separate network without internet access, you can avoid doing system updates because the security vulnerability is 0 from the network perspective.

Alternately you can always clone your drive before you make system changes so that if there is a problem you can revert back to the last known good config.

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

I usually hit the security updates right away. For other updates, I always do one or two of my lesser systems first before any primary workstations, just to make sure an update doesn't break something. Even then, there's no guaranty as there's always different configurations at play. Keep regular backups so you can restore if you break something.

 

[Subhadip Sen]

I just let it update automatically, I haven't opened Windows Update manually in months. Of course, I have System Restore enabled if anything goes wrong, but so far I haven't faced any issues, the updates have been completely silent and invisible.

I once had a major issue after updating to a beta driver from Nvidia (obviously outside of Windows Update), thankfully System Restore reversed it with ease.

 

[Maxi Claudio]

I never update unless an app needs something like .NET or JAVA. Its easy to break something that works fine.

 

[Elsie N]

If your workstation is completely on a separate network without internet access, you can avoid doing system updates because the security vulnerability is 0 from the network perspective.

Alternately you can always clone your drive before you make system changes so that if there is a problem you can revert back to the last known good config.

+1 on cloning the drive. I use a laptop as my primary for surfing the web. Two times something has taken hold of my machine and initially caused it to fail to boot. Finally got it to boot after going into safe mode, but then it would boot, stay stable for a minute or two, then reboot. And, whatever was wrong would turn off real time protection from Security Essentials and not let me turn it back on. My suspicions are the problem was either a Java update or maybe even an Adobe PDF or Flash update.

But I've got a cloned drive on hand that I simply recopied both times I experienced this exact same problem. Since I'll be using that laptop to download Epic footage in the field, I've retired it from Internet service and on my current internet machine am not updating Java or other apps until they become absolutely necessary to function properly. But I do still update Windows security fixes.

 

[Stefan Antonescu]

Thanks guys.