Re: Does this make sense to anyone?

On Sun, 22 Apr 2007 21:25:32 GMT, Dragon wrote:

A friend tells me that his computer, running XP, throws up a warning that
appears to come form Microsoft.
It claims that his security needs updating and that it will take 4 hours (
on dial up).
Somewhere it mentions Option 2.
When ignored the window fades away rather than closing suddenly.
Every time the computer is started it re-appears then fades away.
The computer normally updates XP automatically as it also does to AVG 7.5
free.
Friend is not very knowledgeable with computers as you can probably tell
from the lack of detail above.

What might be going on here?

Henry

It is hard to say whether the message is legitimate without seeing the
actual message. Is it a small popup ballon from the system tray, or is it
a large message window? As far as the 4 hours, that is not unreasonable,
as Microsoft did issue quite a few patches this last go-round. I know that
several months ago it took me 7 hours to download the XP updates, so that
isn't all that unusual when downloading a lot of hotfixes on dial-up. As
for Option 2, Microsoft usually gives you the option of automatically
downloading and installing updates, or downloading only - and you install
the updates yourself. More than likely the latter is the Option 2 referred
to. You mention AVG, but XP updates are completelly different in that they
are system fixes and updates rather than software. The one thing that bugs
me is that I don't remember XP Security Center ever giving me a warning as
to how long the download would take - but, that doesn't mean it isn't
legit.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Software Update Services (SUS) - SA Edition
    ... And she has contacted several people at Microsoft ... >>> downloading or the appropriate CD? ... >>> "SUS is available in two versions. ... >>> system critical updates and security rollup packages ...
    (microsoft.public.security)
  • Re: Software Update Services (SUS) - SA Edition
    ... And she has contacted several people at Microsoft ... >> downloading or the appropriate CD? ... >> "SUS is available in two versions. ... >> system critical updates and security rollup packages ...
    (microsoft.public.security)
  • Re: Does this make sense to anyone?
    ... It claims that his security needs updating and that it will take 4 hours ... The computer normally updates XP automatically as it also does to AVG 7.5 ... as Microsoft did issue quite a few patches this last go-round. ... isn't all that unusual when downloading a lot of hotfixes on dial-up. ...
    (alt.comp.anti-virus)
  • Re: Problem with that damn Windows update
    ... > the last two days the damn Windows icon to the right of the task bar ... > over it, it said 37% downloading. ... > system to check for updates and tell me when they are ready to ... > allegedly needed from the windowsupdate website at Microsoft. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Problem with that damn Windows update
    ... > the last two days the damn Windows icon to the right of the task bar ... > over it, it said 37% downloading. ... > system to check for updates and tell me when they are ready to ... > allegedly needed from the windowsupdate website at Microsoft. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsupdate)