Are ‘recommended’ updates really recommended?
Q
I’ve noticed that my Windows 7 PC installs ‘recommended’ updates almost every day. Is Microsoft trying to intimidate Windows 7 users like myself to upgrade to Windows 10? Or can I ignore these ‘recommended’ updates? Incidentally, I genuinely think Computeractive gets better with every issue! Roger Guest
A
We certainly aim to help our readers learn something new in every issue, so thanks for the compliment! Hopefully, from our reply you’ll understand that, while Microsoft has certainly worked various tricks to try to get people to upgrade to Windows 10, what you’re seeing here is not one of them.
In fact, almost all of these updates relate to Microsoft Security Essentials, which is the basic anti-malware tool that’s built into Windows 7. As such, not only are regular updates to be expected, they’re actually desirable. If you don’t have other security software installed, we’d go further than Microsoft and say that they’re not merely to be recommended, but actually crucial. Because they’re automatically installed, there’s nothing for you to do here – and certainly nothing to worry about.
For Microsoft’s part, in Windows 10 the company has improved the updatehistory system to better distinguish the different types of update. If you eventually upgrade, click Start, the settings cog, then ‘Update & Security’ followed by ‘View update history’, and you’ll see that these malware-definition updates are now granted their own section (see screenshot).