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| MANUALLY CHECK FOR WINDOWS VISTA UPDATES |
When Windows Vista is first installed by your Computer's Manufacturer, or by you using a Restore CD for example, Windows Vista
will only be up-to-date from the date of its creation. So if your computer manufacturer installed a copy of Windows Vista
that was created on 1st February 2007 but you did not buy the computer from a retailer until 1st March 2007 it means that
copy of Windows Vista will probably not of been checked for updated software/hardware files since 1st February 2007. This
is normally due to the retailer not wanting to set-up Windows Vista for you, for whatever reason(s).
Upon buying the computer from the retailer, getting it home and switching it on, the first thing Windows Vista asks you for
is a User Name for the default Administrator User Account. After entering your preferred user name Windows Vista then attempts
to Activate itself, within a 30-day period, by registering its Product Key (The Serial Number that came with your copy of
Windows Vista) with some of your computer details over the internet. Once this is done you should then use the Windows Update
control panel (program) to check the Microsoft Windows Update website for any updated software/hardware files that can
protect and/or improve your copy of Windows Vista. This whole set-up procedure is very simple but also a simple set-up procedure many retailers
do not want to do for you. The same set-up procedure also applies when you use a Restore CD to install Windows Vista.
Assuming you have Activated your version of Windows Vista, and therefore are using the default Administrator User Account,
I will now show you how to check for updated software/hardware files (updates) using Windows Update. Begin by clicking on the Start Menu and then on
ALL PROGRAMS, to reveal the Programs List, and then click on the WINDOWS UPDATE menu-item (Fig 1.0). Alternatively, you can
click on the CONTROL PANEL link, on the right-hand-side of the Start Menu, and then double click on the WINDOWS UPDATE icon
(Fig 1.1). Either way will make the Windows Update, Control Panel, window appear (Fig 1.2).
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When the Windows Update window appears click on the CHECK FOR UPDATES button to continue. As the above example shows, no checking for updated software/hardware files (updates) has ever been done and therefore no updates have ever been installed.
After clicking on the CHECK FOR UPDATES button Windows Update checks the Microsoft Windows Update website for any updated software/hardware files that could help protect and/or improve your copy of Windows Vista and/or your computer's hardware.
When Windows Update has finished checking the Microsoft Windows Update website for any updated software/hardware files
(updates) it will inform you if any updates were found for your copy of Windows Vista and/or for your computer's hardware
(Fig 1.4 above). If any updates are found you normally just click on the INSTALL UPDATES button and that is the end of the
matter, because the updates are downloaded and then installed automatically. However. As you gain more experience from using
Windows Update and learn more about Computer Security you should begin to realize that manually downloading and installing
updates is the best policy and that just clicking on INSTALL UPDATES is not always the best policy.
One good reason for downloading updates manually, whenever it is possible, is to save on download time. In the above example
the Important Updates are at least 71 MegaBytes in length, not counting the Optional Updates, which would takes at least 10
hours to download on a 56k Modem (Dial-Up) connection. Even on a Broadband connection, depending on your broadband speed, it
could take up to one hour to download 71 MegaBytes. Therefore. If you are a Dial-Up user you are better off downloading the
update files onto a Flash Drive or CD for example, using an Internet Cafe's broadband connection, before manually installing
them yourself. This is only if each update file is downloadable as seperate file of course. And if you are a broadband user
it is best to let Windows Update download and then install only a few update files at a time.
On the security side of things, for broadband users, it is better to let Windows Update download and install about ten
updates at a time. Why? Take this scenario. You have a house with 10 windows, each needing a lock fitted. You only earn
enough money to buy one lock a week, so it will take you ten weeks to make the windows of the house secure. In this scenario
if you are wise you would buy and fit one lock a week so that the house is a little more (10% more) secure each week. Whereas
if you are not-so-wise you might wait ten weeks until you can afford all the locks to be fitted, by which time you might of
been burgled. And the same applies to Windows Update. By downloading and installing only a few updates at a time you are
slowly but surely securing Windows Vista, whereas downloading and installing all of the available updates in one go leaves
Windows Vista vunerable to virus attacks and so on.
If you think your broadband connection is fast enough for Windows Update to automatically download and then install all of
the Important Updates go ahead and click on the INSTALL UPDATES button, otherwise click on the VIEW AVAILABLE UPDATES button
to continue.
After clicking on the VIEW AVAILABLE UPDATES button you are presented with the View Available Updates window which consists
of Important Updates, Recommended Updates and Optional Updates - Windows Update classes Recommended Updates as Important
Updates.
Whenever you check for updates the Important and Recommended updates are ticked by default (normal behaviour) simply because
Windows Update naturally assumes you want those updates downloaded and installed. If there are any updates that you do not
want Windows Update to download and install you should un-tick them before clicking on the INSTALL button. In the example
below I have un-ticked all but one update. This is because I will later download the majority of the found updates from an
Internet Cafe, onto my Flash Drive, and then manually install them onto my computer one by one without the need of my
Diap-Up (56k Modem) connection. Viewing the updates allows me to print screenshots of the updates, which in turn allows me
to see the number assigned to each update - Handy for when I go to the internet cafe.
Fig 1.7 above shows an example of one update selected before clicking on the INSTALL button. Fig 1.8 shows the selected update being downloaded onto my computer. And Fig 1.9 shows that the update was successfully installed. After the download process Windows Update might create a Restore Point, depending on the update(s) downloaded, in order to protect your copy of Windows Vista. This is just in case any updates are not 100% compatible with your copy of Wndows Vista and therefore give it problems, which is rare. The restore point means you can take your Windows Vista back to a time before the selected update(s) was/were installed, if you cannot uninstall the selected update(s) naturally with the Programs And Features control panel.
| MANUALLY DOWNLOAD AN UPDATE FILE |
To manually download the found updates for your copy of Windows Vista and your Computer's Hardware you should first take a
snapshot of the screens that make up the View Available Updates window, so that you have perhaps three snapshots. Your
snapshots should look identical to Figures 1.5 and 1.6 above. To take a snapshot of a window use a Screen Grabber program
such as Adam's Screen Grabber V3.0 (Beta 3) called Grabby
which will turn a snapshot into an image/photo file (i.e snapshot1.jpg - depending on your settings for Grabby) that you
can then print with a picture viewer such as windows vista's Windows Photo Gallery. Alternatively. Just type out each
updates' number (i.e KB938979) using NotePad for example and then save the list onto a Flash Drive (i.e Updates.txt).
Once you have the list of updates saved onto a flash drive (or floppy disk drive) as a picture file, text file and/or print
out (as we are spoilt for choice these days!) find someone with a high-speed (upto 8MBs) broadband connection, or go to an
internet cafe, and open up your favourite Search Engine (i.e www.google.com). From there, type out the number of an update,
with the KB prefix, together with the word Download. The KB prefix means Knowledge Base and is related to Microsoft's
Knowledge dataBase.
Once you have typed the KB (Knowledge Base) number your are searching for into the search engine's SEARCH Edit Box, followed by the word download, click on the the search engine's SEARCH button to continue. The word download is added so that the search engine will give results for Download Links and not Article Links - You do not want to read an article about kb936514 for example, you just want to download its update file.
The results for KB936514 have appeared (above). Ignore the first three links, with the light grey background, as they are
Sponsored Links. The first general Download Link is called Download details: Security Update for the 2007 Microsoft
Office System ... which is the link that you need to click on. It will take you to a webpage that gives you a little
description about the problem that the kb936514 update file fixes, as well as a DOWNLOAD button to enable you to download
the kb936514 update file (2.2 below).
When the results of your search appear (Fig 2.1 above) always try and find a link that comes directly from the manufacturer's
website. In this example, from the www.microsoft.com website. The main reason being that the file you are looking for is
more likely to be up-to-date if it comes from a manufacturer's website, as opposed to it coming from a non-manufacturer's
website. Another reason is that some non-manufacturer websites might knowingly or unknowingly be distributing a virus version
of your searched for file. Some of these websites do not have the time and/or resources to virus check every single file
that is uploaded to their FTP websites by "Mr Badsmith". So if you do find a non-manufacturer website that is offering a
download of your searched for file make sure the DOWNLOAD button or DOWNLOAD link is going directly to the manufacturer's
website or that the searched for file is going to be downloaded directly from the manufacturer's website. One way of doing
this is to look at the Status Bar at the bottom of your web browser (i.e Internet Explorer). A non-manufacturer website
could be storing and distributing manufacturer files with the full knowledge and rights of the manufacturer, but in the
case of Microsoft they usually expect a non-manufacturer website to link to their files only.
After clicking on the kb936514 download link from your search engine (Fig 2.1 above) you are taken to the above Microsoft
download webpage. As you can see, it has http://www.microsoft.com/ at the beginning of its web (internet) address - one sign
that it is a genuine Microsoft webpage. Another sign, to anyone who has visited a Microsoft download webpage before, is the
look and feel of the website. As you become familar with the internet and company websites you tend to build up an intuition
of what is a good/genuine website and what is not. So being satisfied that this is the genuine Microsoft webpage for the
KB936514 update file the next thing to do is click on the DOWNLOAD button.
Some update files are for Windows Genuine Users only which means you may have to go through a Validation Check, to make
sure your copy of Windows Vista is genuine, in order to download a certain update file. Once your copy of Windows Vista
is validated subsequent validation checks are normally brief....a slight pause before the download webpage appears. The
validation process is not shown in this section.
Clicking on the DOWNLOAD button (Fig 2.2 above) makes a Pop-Up window appear with the web address (download link address) inside its Address Bar edit box (Fig 2.3 above). If you currently have more than one file downloading this pop-up window will stay until the kb936514 update file is ready to be downloaded (at the front of the download queue), at which point the File Download requester will appear (Fig 2.4 above). When it does appear click on its SAVE button to continue. This will then bring up the following SAVE AS file requester.
In order to save the kb936514 update file you will either have to save the update file onto your broadband enabled computer
(i.e onto the internet cafe's computer) and then copy (burn) it onto a CD or simply save the update file straight onto a
flash drive. A floppy disk will be useless as the file size of the kb936514 update is over 9 Megabytes - A floppy disk can
only store 1.44 Megabytes of data. In this example I have navigated the SAVE AS file requester to my flash drive called
YOINGCO which is assigned (given) the drive letter E, hence YOINGCO (E:). If I wanted to I could of navigated to a folder
or sub-folder on my flash drive but for ease of use and to save time I chose the flash drive's root (main) folder E.
You can change the file name if you want to, to something like kb936514-office2007.exe for example, but I would strongly
recommend keeping it as Microsoft has named it: office2007-kb936514-fullfile-x86-glb.exe. Some manufacturers check the
file name, as well the file size, of a file to make sure it has not been altered in any way. The exact file name might also
be referenced by another program, therefore you might get an error stating "Cannot find office2007-kb936514-fullfile-x86-glb.exe"
because you have renamed the file to kb936514-office2007.exe for example.
Click on the SAVE button to download the kb936514 update file onto your flash drive or whatever saving device/media you
have chosen.
Fig 2.6 above shows the update file being downloaded using my Dial-Up connection. This is to emphasize the point about using a broadband connection. A broadband connection can download the same 9.18MB file well within 45 seconds, whereas with my dial-up connection it is going to take approximately 45 minutes overall (including the 15% already downloaded). If you now apply this scenario to you downloading most of your update files using an internet cafe's broadband connection for example you will see how much time you can save.
Another benefit of manually downloading update files, regardless if you are using a broadband connection or dial-up connection, is that once you have them on a cd and/or flash drive you will not need an internet connection when installing them on a new Windows Vista for example. Simply install each update file manually (see below) so that you are not downloading and installing them from the internet and are therefore not risking an attack as you do so. The longer you are on the internet without installed update files the more chance Windows Vista and other software has of being vunerable to attack. Microsoft Office 2007 is vunerable to attack for example, but when Microsoft spot a vunerability they do their best to fix it by updating and/or creating new files for that particular piece of software. The end result of that is the update file - one compressed file that contains the repaired and/or newly created files needed to combat the vunerability. KB936514 is such a file.
| MANUALLY INSTALL AN UPDATE FILE |
Having manually downloaded all your needed update files, taken from the list of available updates (Fig 1.5 above), go back to your Windows Vista computer and insert the flash drive or cd containing the update files. From there, double click on an update file to manually install it. Follow the procedure below for each update file.
Not all installations are the same but they are roughly the same - Identical enough for you to know what to click and so on. For example. The above installation tends to be for the Microsoft Office 2007 update files, whereas the installation below tends to be for general update files.
Fig 1.8 above shows a RESTART NOW button and a CLOSE button. This is because in order to make the update active the computer needs to be RESTARTed NOW. However. Because the installation wizard knows you might still be installing other updates and/or still be working on your computer you are given the option to CLOSE the installation wizard. In that case the installation wizard gives Windows Vista the task of completing the update on the next restart of the computer. If you are doing other updates and so on I would recommend clicking on the CLOSE button and then manually restart or shutdown your computer. The beauty of the CLOSE button in this example is that you are not connected to the internet when you are doing the updates and therefore are not vunerable to attack, so there is no importance to quickly update and then restart the computer. Saying this. If you do not RESTART NOW after a certain time you will see the following reminder (nag) requester appear. Click on the POSTPONE button to make the reminder requester disappear for 10 minutes - You can alter the time by using the REMIND ME IN drop-down menu.
It is very unlikely you will find all of your needed update files on the internet but I would say 90% is a realistic target. In the case of my HP Pavilion ZV6004EA laptop, and other computers I have installed over the years, the update files that normally need finishing off (installing with an internet connection) are Microsoft specific updates (i.e to do with Windows Defender, Junk Mail Filters, Malicious Software and Security in general).
Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation. As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.
All HTM files in the yoingco.com folder and its sub-folders are (c) John White, August 3rd 2005 - 2008. All Rights Reserved. FREE Vista Helpline: Contact John