RE: thanks RICH ,do I udnstall all the extra ones ?? kB835732

Tech Tip: Click here to run a free scan for Windows Errors and optimize PC performance

From: Rich (anonymous_at_discussions.microsoft.com)
Date: 04/26/04 

Date: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 02:46:03 -0700

I was trying to think of a better way to explain the multiple installation of
updates a better way. I have the "automatic update" on my pc set up to
only notify me of updates, but not to download or install them until I
approve--either by clicking in that little balloon box I mentioned---

or if you are anal-retentive like me--I usually go to the windows update site
every day and scan my system for needed updates. The reason I do that is
because I added MS Office XP suite onto my pc and Office XP doesnt have the
automatic update feature like windows XP. You have to go to the Office
Update Site. I never remember that web address, but it is one of the menu
choices at the top of the windows update site, so I go there first, scan for
windows XP updates and then click to go to the Office Update Site. So I usually
get the updates installed before the automatic update feature gets around to
checking if there are any updates needed.

Anyway--think about what an update is actually doing to your pc--basically
it is either adding or modifying program code--in specific parts of the
windows program--the registry and new files in one or more directories.

I notice that in the cases where I have done an update more than once-
and yes--this isn't the first time---but the first time that I would do an
update it would take longer than any reinstall that windows update
said was needed--which it really wasn't. The second through 99th
time it tried to install the same update, the structure of the changes was
already in place (ie, the registry structure was already revised and the files
were in place) and the subsequent reinstallationos went faster.

I kind of look at it like pushing a button on the car radio--or at least my car
radio since I drive an Oldsmobile and it still has buttons...lol. Anyway, you
can press the button one time to get the station you want.

If I push that same button 3 more times, what happens?

Nothing--except if the radio had a brain it would tell me that I had already
pushed the button to get to the station I wanted. And the radio doesn't
remember the extra 3 times I pushed the same button. Those extra
3 times I pushed the button were "null" events. They had no impact on
the radio's operation, such as the radio didn't store those 3 extra button
pushes. The next time I would just push another button for a different station.
The three times I pushed the same button on the first station pick were
gone in time because I was trying to repeat what I had already done.

Same with the updates being reinstalled 10 times. It is like cutting the grass
10 times in the summer, just doing it all in one day. The first time does all
the work. The next nine times you cut the grass on the same day, well--
doesn't really do much to the lawn or make the grass any shorter.

Hope that helps.

Quantcast