Update Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
NOW!!!
The most important thing you can do to protect your computer and prevent being
infected by viruses is to keep your operating system, such as Windows XP, up to
date by installing version upgrades and system patches.
Viruses find their way into your computer through these holes in your software. Anti-
virus programs, such as Norton AntiVirus, are helpful in stopping viruses from infecting
your system or ensuring that your PC is virus-free, but by updating your version of
Microsoft Windows, you can prevent most viruses from being able connect to your
system to infect it.
Thankfully, updating your version of Microsoft Windows is very easy. This page
discusses how update is product manually, step-by-step, as well as demonstrating how the
process can be automated (where available).
The first step in updating your Microsoft Windows operating system is to know what
version you are running, Windows 2000 or Windows XP Professional. Once you know
that information, find the section below that matches your Windows version.
Updating Microsoft Windows XP
By default, Microsoft Windows XP will download new updates to your PC but not install
them. You may see a message like this on your system:
If you see this message, click the message to bring up the updates that are ready to be
installed. A list will be displayed like this:
Click the “Install” button to install the updates downloaded from Microsoft. You will see
a window like this when the updates are being installed:
When the update process is finished, a window will usually prompt you to restart your
computer:
Click the “Yes” button to restart your computer and complete the updating process.
One of the great things about Windows XP is that you can automate the entire updating
process so you never have to follow these instructions again.
To configure you computer to automatically download and install the updates for you,
click on the “Start” button and right-click the “My Computer” option. Select “Properties”
from the menu that appears and then you will be viewing the “System Properties”
window. Click the “Automatic Updates” tab, and you will see this window:
Simply select the radio button next to the option to “Automatically download the updates,
and install them on the schedule that I specify” and click the “OK” button.
Now, updates will be installed on your computer as they are made available from
Microsoft without you having to do anything.
If, for some reason, you would like to manually update your Microsoft Windows XP
Professional PC, open Internet Explorer and go to the
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com website. Click the “Yes” to run Windows Update
and then click the link to “Scan for updates.”
The Windows Update tool will scan your computer and find all applicable updates. For
more detailed instructions on using Windows Update, read the section on Updating
Microsoft Windows 2000.
Updating Microsoft Windows 2000
Updating Microsoft Windows 2000 is largely a manual process, but it isn’t a hard one. To
get started, click on “Windows Update” from the Start menu:
Internet Explorer will open and go to the Windows Update website. A Security Warning
message will appear asking if you want to run “Windows Update.” Click the “Yes”
button:
On the next screen, click the link to “Scan for updates” to start the update process:
Windows Update will start looking for updates available for your system:
When critical updates are found, you will see a window like this appear:
Click the links to “Review and install updates” to display the list of updates to be
installed:
Click the “Install Now” button to download and install the updates. You may see a
License Agreement after clicking “Install Now” to start the download. If so, click the
“Accept” button to accept the License Agreement and continue with the download:
While the updates are downloading, you will see a progress bar:
When the update process is finished, you will see a window stating that the installation is
complete:
Most of the time, after using Windows Update, you are required to restart your computer
to actually complete the installation. Click the “OK” button if you get a message asking if
you want to restart now:
When your computer restarts, select Windows Update from the Start menu again to
restart the Windows Update process. Keep redoing the Windows Update process until no
critical updates appear. If your system has not been updated in a while, you may need to
run Windows Update 4 or 5 times to apply all of the updates necessary to be up-to-date.
Occasionally, Windows Update will need to update itself immediately after you open it
from the Start menu. Simply follow the directions it gives you, including the instruction
to restart your computer, and then run Windows Update again to actually update your
Windows 2000 Professional PC.
To continue to get the latest information from Microsoft, put this site under your Internet
Explorer Favorites. http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/default.asp.
Contact the Help Desk with any questions.