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Article for: Anyone concerned about updates
Difficulty: Simple
Importance: Not important

There is a dispute among computer consultants about when you should install Windows updates. Some recommend waiting a week or two in case there are problems with the initial release. Others, like me, recommend updating quickly because miscreants are quick to take advantage of the flaws that Microsoft patched. Last month's patch fixed 115 separate security flaws.

However, as with vaccines and other medicines, though useful for most people, updates sometimes cause problems. With over 1.5 billion Windows installs being used every day, I expect some will have issues with updates and be very vocal reporting them. Like so many issues in life, no one knows what is best. I can claim that with hundreds of client computers, my quick update procedure has never caused a problem. Others can claim that their wait procedure has never caused a problem. But both methods will hurt some, and no one has accurate numbers.

I think that the less ordinary your computer, like an off-brand laptop, the more reasonable waiting is. Windows 10 offers an option to postpone updates for 7 days. This is a reasonable compromise. From Windows update, simply choose the pause for 7 days option.

 

This option is only available in Windows 10.

Date: April 2020