[bloomcounty]

I have a new laptop with Windows XP SP2 on it, IE6 (though I use Firefox, not IE), and MS Office 2003 Student Edition. The latest update that popped up as "high priority" from Windows Update is this GDI+ Detection Tool (KB873374).

It sounds like you have to install it then run it and then visit MS Office website to check for updates...? Is this worth doing? Can it cause more problems than it will help? (I thought I've read about issues when updating MS Office with security patches...? And that you have to download yet something else to even check for Office security updates...?)

Or do Office security updates come through Windows Update, and I don't need to worry about this? (But if that's the case, then why even have this GDI+ thing available?)

I'm always worried about ending up with a bunch of conflicts with other programs like AVG, ZA, AutoGK, DVDShrink, etc.

Any help is appreciated -- thanks!

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you'll get the vast majority of your Windows and Office updates through automatic updates, but some of them need user-intervention and can't be installed automatically because you need to run it and see what the result is.

For myself, i just keep a good firewall running and keep my antivirus up to date, running xp-sp2 with auto-updates turned off, receive a security bulletin from microsoft every week and only download any critical updates that are mentioned in it. much easier to manage than having auto-updates driving you up the wall when you're trying to do something else online.

doing that hasn't done me any harm so far, and i've been doing it that way for two years.

[pip22]

you'll get the vast majority of your Windows and Office updates through automatic updates, but some of them need user-intervention and can't be installed automatically because you need to run it and see what the result is.

For myself, i just keep a good firewall running and keep my antivirus up to date, running xp-sp2 with auto-updates turned off, receive a security bulletin from microsoft every week and only download any critical updates that are mentioned in it. much easier to manage than having auto-updates driving you up the wall when you're trying to do something else online.

doing that hasn't done me any harm so far, and i've been doing it that way for two years.

[bloomcounty]

you'll get the vast majority of your Windows and Office updates through automatic updates, but some of them need user-intervention and can't be installed automatically because you need to run it and see what the result is.

For myself, i just keep a good firewall running and keep my antivirus up to date, running xp-sp2 with auto-updates turned off, receive a security bulletin from microsoft every week and only download any critical updates that are mentioned in it. much easier to manage than having auto-updates driving you up the wall when you're trying to do something else online.

doing that hasn't done me any harm so far, and i've been doing it that way for two years.

Thanks for the post!

So should I install this GDI+ Detection Tool or just mark it as to not be reminded about it? (I wasn't clear on the answer to that from your response.)

I'm always hesitant to install something that has to run on my system.

I've got AVG and ZA, keep both up to date, and I have Automatic Updates turned on just to let me know when there's a critical update (so I don't have to visit the Windows Update site to get updates).

I was thinking I would only do the updates to Office that come through Automatic Updates and not worry about any others...

Let me know the scoop -- thanks again!

[Neil Jones]

All the GDI Tool is is tell you if the version of Office on your computer is affected by a security hole which is patched at the Office Update site. That's all it does. Office Updates come through Windows Update if you've upgraded it to Microsoft Update.

[bloomcounty]

All the GDI Tool is is tell you if the version of Office on your computer is affected by a security hole which is patched at the Office Update site. That's all it does. Office Updates come through Windows Update if you've upgraded it to Microsoft Update.

What do you mean by if you've updated Windows Update to Microsoft Update? What's the difference? And how do you do that?

[Neil Jones]

Look on the Start Menu -> All Programs. If you see "Microsoft Update" at the top, you've already got it. If not, go to Windows Update, there's a big blue button at the top of the window saying "Get Microsoft Update now".

[bloomcounty]

Look on the Start Menu -> All Programs. If you see "Microsoft Update" at the top, you've already got it. If not, go to Windows Update, there's a big blue button at the top of the window saying "Get Microsoft Update now".

Okay, I don't have that... So what's the difference between that and Windows Update? Is it better to have Microsoft Update, or does that have its own set of problems associated with it?