Automatic Updates Fix Compatibility Problems

[sukishan]

In my last column, I talked about Device Driver Rollback, which lets you easily recover after installing a driver that makes your system crash or become unstable. Now I'd like to tell you about two additional reliability improvements in Windows XP that prevent you from getting into an incompatibility mess in the first place—Dynamic Update and Automatic Updates.

Keeping Your System Current
Updating an operating system when you install new drivers, add new hardware or software, or encounter setup or security bugs can be a major problem for the user and the OS vendor. For the user, it often means sorting through a bewildering list of patches to figure out which one you need, and then determining what other patches to apply (and in what order) before you can apply the original one. The OS vendor has the problem of supporting this less-than-friendly process.

Not only does it need to deliver the right patches to the people who need them, but it also needs to integrate them into the OS installation media and documentation. Windows XP includes two new features that make this process essentially painless for the user and for those who support the user—Dynamic Update and Automatic Updates. Dynamic Update occurs during setup, and the Automatic Update feature works to get updates into the system after it's up and running.