[jimt]

Can’t automatic updates be turned off?

Indeed they can, in XP. Go to Start, Settings, Control Panel, Security Center and you'll find the controls to shut off automatic updates.

This follows the general rule of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Most of the "updates" are to patch security holes, but if your antivirus software is worth a damn, and you don't click on stupid stuff, you don't need them.

Some are actually counterproductive. MS released an "update" to Office 2003 that made it so it would no longer read Office 97 files. And their release notes said nothing about that great improvement.

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

[Richard Kimball]

Yeah, that's always been my biggest gripe with MS. They provide some good products, but also deliberately kneecap you if it will help their bottom line. Microsoft "partners" have found this out multiple times. MS partners with people, figures out what part of their business is profitable, clones it, goes into competition with their "partner" after using their partnership to raid all their intellectual property.

Their biggest problem with Office was that it worked just fine, so there wasn't any real need to upgrade. Soooooo, all of a sudden, they decide they need to zip files when they save them, and anybody who doesn't buy the latest version of Office has to download an update (no automatic update patches to make Office 2003 open Office 2007 files.) If you decide to save your Office 2007 files as Office 2003 by default, well, that's buried about three menus down, then every time you try to save a file you get a compatibility warning, then if you EVER save a file as an Office 2007 file, it unchecks your "Save as Office 2003 document choice and defaults back to 2007. These aren't just programming glitches, it's MS making NOT upgrading as big a pain in the rear as they can.