Windows Updates

Microsoft’s Windows Update is available free, and cuts down on security holes in the operating system.  As Microsoft discovers vulnerabilities in Windows, Office, and their other software, they release patches to the public from the web site http://www.windowsupdate.com.  There are 2 types of updates, High Priority and Low Priority.  High Priority updates are pushed automatically to your computer if you have enabled “Automatic Updates” (see Microsoft’s Automatic Updates Tutorial).  Low Priority updates are not as important and can be downloaded at your leisure.

If you have a University-owned computer with Windows XP or Windows 7, you should be notified immediately if you need an update. You will see a prompt like the following at the bottom of your screen:

Follow the prompt, and the update will download. You may be prompted to restart, and that’s it!

Manual Updates

You can also search for updates manually with Windows 7 by clicking on the start menu.

Then typing in ‘Windows Update’ in the search box and clicking ‘Windows Update’ in the results.

A window will come up prompting you to install new updates or it will say that Windows is up to date.