May I assume Automatic Updates is set to the Notify Only option (i.e., you
must approve which updates are download and which updates are installed)?
When so many updates are released on a given Patch Tuesday (e.g., 14 Apr-09)
and when so many of them apply to just about any Windows version and when MS
then "pushes" other non-critical updates during the third week of the month
(i.e., IE8; Office 2007 SP2), the update servers get swamped/overloaded.
[If your windowsupdate.log shows lots of recent "Update is not allowed to
download due to regulation" entries, this is what's happening (cf.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/910340).]
When this happens, some but not all of the Approved updates will be
downloaded by AU, in which case the AU "Install updates" icon doesn't appear
but you encounter the "Install updates and shutdown" option when shutting
down for the day. IOW, this is expected/normal, albeit clumsy, behavior.
You can download/install the updates manually via Windows/Microsoft Update
(WinXP): Understand that by doing so, you're pushing all other Automatic
Updates users further back in the queue (which may explain, at least in
part, why Automatic Updates hasn't brought them in for you yet).
--
~Robear Dyer (PA Bear)
MS MVP-IE, Mail, Security, Windows Client - since 2002
Bob wrote:
> I have noticed over the last few weeks that my computer always seems to be
> involved in updates. This is not causing me any real inconvenience that I
> am
> aware of but it concerns me because I cannot recall it ever being so
> frequent. Whenever I go to shut down I get the symbol and notice that
> updates will be completed and then the computer will shut down and I am
> not
> to shut it down myself. This is what I would expect during a typical
> security update by MS but are there a lot going of these being done right
> now? It seems at least once a day I am getting new update notices when I
> start up or shut down. Any advice is appreciated. I have tried going to MS
> Update site and signing up for the automatic service twice thinking that
> maybe the first time something went wrong. I have also recently updated to
> IE8. I am using XP Media Center OS. on an HP a1450n model computer.