Hello Iamgoogle, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Well, in addition to increased security, you can gut bug patches, feature updates, increased hardware support updates, etc........ To ensure that you computer stays up to date and running properly, I would recommend to install all Windows Updates for Vista only, and install any driver updates yourself from the manufacturer's website instead.

I usually recommend to only install a couple of the updates at a time when there are many to help avoid them conflicting with each other during installation.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Originally Posted by iamgoogle

Does anyone actually know why all these updates are recommended? it seems a little over the top. my friend suggested that i turn off automatic installs and only install a select few updates (ive only installed the windows defender updates). my computer is running fine. it seems that they cause more problems than they fix. what advantages would one receive from these windows updates? other than the obvious answer "increased security"

It's great that your computer is running fine, and I'm presuming that when a major problem or security failure is caused because you didn't install a specific update, your good friend will come to your assistance, to help you restore your computer to full and secure working order.

More often than not, the problems are caused by the User failing to follow simple instructions in the recommended reasons for the installation of updates.

As for why they are recommended, all you need to do is click on each one in turn and read the summary about the update, and why Microsoft are recommending it. Each in turn is different, and could be related to any number of programs that you have installed, from compatibility issues with Internet Explorer 8, to security issues with Microsoft Office, to tweaks for Silverlight, to Junk E-mail issues, and on and on.

How many updates are you actually talking about? SP1? SP2? And what has lead to this?

The bottom line remains, that the updates are promulgated as a Service under the licence agreement from Microsoft, for your own protection. If you choose to either ignore, or make selective updates from the recommended list, then you must accept responsibility for anything that may cause your system to fail, as a result of the choices you make and the options you take.

Further, there is also an option to receive notification of updates, without them actually being automatically installed. The exception here would be the updates for Windows Defender, where automatic installation of updates is the recommended action, and so it should be.