Are Windows Updates really necessary?

[Winston]

Momopi,
Is it wise to turn off automatic windows updates to conserve system resources? If I leave it on, it has updates for me to download every day. It never ends. Are they really necessary? What is the risk factor? Low enough to not bother?

Thanks,
Winston

[keius]

I've always had it disabled. Just remember that you do need to occasionally do the updates if you want the latest and greatest security patches.

I also disable windows defender/firewall/etc that are enabled by default. My antivirus software is also disabled until i choose to scan stuff. BUT i know what the hell i'm doing.

However, disabling autoupdates isn't a big deal. Risk factor is fairly low. Just use some browser other than Internet Explorer. And do updates once a month or so.

[momopi]

Momopi,
Is it wise to turn off automatic windows updates to conserve system resources? If I leave it on, it has updates for me to download every day. It never ends. Are they really necessary? What is the risk factor? Low enough to not bother?
Thanks,
Winston

If you turn off automatic update, you can still manually run windows update once in a while to download all the patches overnight. The importance of security patches depends on how much you surf the web and download stuff.

[Winston]

Everyday Windows sends me notifications of new updates to download. And every time I download them, I have to restart my computer again, or I will keep getting an annoying notification to restart it.

Sheesh. Is all this really necessary? It's annoying to have to download updates everyday and restart your computer. Isn't my anti-virus program enough to protect my computer? What do these security patches do exactly?

Btw, AVG Free sucks and constantly corrupts and has to be reinstalled. It also misses a lot of viruses. I switched to Avira long ago, and also found that Avast is good as well. They are both free. If you have neither, I would go with Avast for now, since the control panel seems more user friendly and even has a female voice giving you notifications.

[Winston]

Do all you guys download windows updates every few days? If you dont does your computer get infected or bugged? Whats the purpose of all these damn updates? And how come they come almost everyday?

I heard that if you download them, they eventually slow down your computer. Is that true?

Some conspiracy buffs also think Microsoft is collecting data on you using these updates which they then relay to big brother government. Is that true?