Monday, October 25, 2010

Watch out for this Windows 7 update

It's large, and you may not even need it:

Is Windows Live Essentials 2011 falsely flagged by Windows Update?
Users of Windows Vista and Windows 7 are starting to see an update notice from Microsoft. However, this notice, while listed as Important by Windows Update, isn’t security related. It’s a 160 MB download of Windows Live Essentials (WLE) 2011. Is this false flagging, or a legitimate notification?

As it turns out, the offered update is both legit and a bit mismarked. Due to how the Windows Update features work with Microsoft Update, it is entirely possible to see a Microsoft Recommended Update listed as Important.

In a blog post on the release of WLE 2011, Microsoft said that it would be offered as a Recommended Update for users who have any one of the Windows Live software products installed, “…otherwise it will be offered as an Optional Update. If you have configured your computer to automatically download Recommended Updates then it will download automatically.”

What the blog post did not say was that if you have also enabled Microsoft Update along side Windows Update, then you will see these recommended updates as important ones. The reason is a checkmark next to a box within the Windows Update configuration that allows you to get, “recommended updates the say way [you] receive important updates.”

Most users on Vista or Windows 7 have Microsoft Update enabled. So many of them have seen this update recently listed as Important in the tray notification. [...]

Important to know, especially if you have limits on your bandwidth usage.
     

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