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If you have visited Microsoft’s Windows Update site since a couple of months back, you probably would’ve noticed a fairly large sign encouraging you to install Microsoft Update. After installing and using it for quite some time (and subsequently disabling it recently), here’s my (short) write up on it.

Sporting a similar interface to Windows Update, Microsoft Update not only is able to do the job of finding updates for Windows but also for other Microsoft software on your computer such as the Office suite or Visual Studio if you’re into software/web development using Microsoft technologies.

Once installed, Microsoft Update integrates into the standard Windows Automatic Update which most users would have been prompted to enable once you have Windows set up and running. There aren’t any additional settings or changes once it’s installed so there’s no added complexity, if you’re worried on that. ;)

Unfortunately, not long after installing it, my laptop started freezing up for prolonged periods on start up (which was extremely annoying since it reduced my battery life by a lot). I originally blamed WGA for it, but the problem recurred after I removed WGA and found the symptoms listed in the MS knowledgebase.

If you have installed Microsoft Update and are experiencing these symptoms, you could either persevere with it, disable it or install the hotfix listed here. I decided to disable it instead of installing the hotfix, so I can’t say for sure the hotfix works, but disabling it does. Here are the steps, followed by the screenshots:

1. Go to the Microsoft Update page.
2. Click on ‘Change settings’.
3. Scroll down the page, check ‘Disable Microsoft Update software and let me use Windows Update only’ and click on ‘Apply changes now’ button.

If you do decide to disable Microsoft Update but still want to keep your MS Office up to date, you can use Office Update instead. ;)