microsoft updates

well-medicated

I'm setting up a laptop for a friend; a Dell Inspiron, about two years old. It will be used for word processing and browsing the internet.

I'll installed AVG, Zone alarm and Ad-Aware SE. Everything working fine.

Then I allowed the microsoft updates to install - I have eighty of them, including SP2. Now the laptop runs like a three-legged donkey.

I've always installed updated and hotfixes on my own PCs, but I'm wondering if these are all absolutely necessary - especially in this case, for a laptop that will probably be used to surf the net via a dail-up modem once or twice a week.

Has anyone got a view about these updates? Which are more important, Security updates or Hotfixes?

All views gratefully accepted.

W-M

thomas01155

SP2 can slow won the computer quite a bit.but ill recommend having it. Updates can be quite important or there could be security holes in the system, witch hackers could exploit or websites.

wakandem

I have found that sp2 works better on older systems than earlier versions. I would imagine after the mass of updates the HDD is in need of a defrag, the updates rearrange masses of os files & the HDD looks a mess after this. In my opinion you have enough security and any more will slow the pc. Also check that lots of start up scans are not slowing the pc for the 1st 20-30mins & just run them when you want to