What are Windows Updates?

What are windows updates?

This applies to Microsoft software - usually running on a laptop or desktop computer (non-Apple).

Until recent versions (like windows 10) many users found the updates time consuming and performance hindering. You can now limit how they are installed and make more pleasant experience.  A few years back the updates would automatically download and install affecting pc speed and performance.  Techos would try stopping them but then had other issues when that failed.  Many users complained that for some reason they had system slow and freezing, not realising that in the background their system was busy applying the updates.

Why do we need them?

Microsoft use these updates to fix bugs and issues that were found from time to time.  How it became the "norm" to do this is a mystery to me.  Many debates have argued it is unnecessary.  I feel that MS deem them necessary at the expense of the naive pc user - imposing a poor system on them in the first place.  Why wasn't the system perfect out of the box - but this a separate debate.

How can we stop them?

W10 and W11 now have switches where you delay these updates for a more than four weeks.  This is handy if you are having an important zoom meeting or presentation and do not have the patience for windows updates consuming your power and performance at a critical time.  You can't stop them indefinitely, but the pause button is handy.