From the Start Menu, go to your control panel and do a keyword search on "update". It should return a result for Windows Update with a choice to "Turn Automatic Updating On or Off."

If you so turn automatic updating off (which I always have), be sure that you go to Start>All Programs>Windows Update a least once a week and check for updates.

MS updates come out on the second Tuesday of the month. I do my check on Monday. That give me six days to make sure that the updates do not have problems.

It is a ritual for me.

Z

I tried to do the Windows 8.1 upgrade a couple days ago. It totally locked up my computer and asked for a password. I entered the password and it didn't accept it. I could not exit that screen, my computer was totally locked up. The control/alt/delete didn't even work. I called Microsoft and they said for them to HELP me fix their problem, I had to pay $109. Arguing didn't help so I hung up on him. I unplugged the computer and plugged it back in and it went back to the same screen. I unplugged it again and waited about a half hour. When I plugged it back in and turned it on, it asked if I wanted to open using Windows 8, which I did. Microsoft really pi$$ed me of and I have used them since windows started.

Back everything up to the cloud or an external hard drive just in case your hard drive is starting to go.

The window 8.1 upgrade is older then the august patch that is faulty. That's a different problem.

I watch many podcasts about technology. Most of them star Leo Laporte, the tech guy from TWIT [this week in technology]. No one on that network is happy with microsoft right now. You can use an online version of office for free and they are predicting windows 9 will also be free. That used top be their money makers.

I bought my wife a chromebook and it's carefree for the both of us.

I started this post and did not turn off auto updates. I had the troubled update with no problems and figured i was safe.

wrong

Windows said that I needed to reboot to complete an update it automatically downloaded last night. I thought that update was not the faulty one and it crashed my HP laptop. I could not boot.

Fortunately, HP includes a system repair on a partition and fortunately I could go back to an earlier system restore. For HP you hit the escape key and system recovery is an option. An hour later, the problem was solved. For some reason I had to uninstall and reinstall chrome. I had to reset IE too.

I back up in the cloud so if some files went away, it would be ok.

yep----I wish I turned off the auto back up last week when you told me to.
[i hope you don't say ---i told you so :) ]

Thanks for the tips.

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