Rule 5 - Get Windows critical updates regularly

There once was a programmer who thought he never made mistakes. He was wrong, and that is why Microsoft periodically issues critical updates. Programmers are just like the rest of us, and programming an operating system such as Windows is an incredibly large and complex undertaking, involving thousands of people. There are errors in Windows, and many of them can be exploited by hackers to penetrate your system and take it over, to write viruses and worms to damage your system of obtain information for fraud and theft, or be used by seedier elements to spy on you and obtain information that you may well rightly feel invades your privacy.

Microsoft regularly published updates to fix these faults, and you should obtain them regularly. They are available online free of charge, and are easy to download and install. Windows XP even includes a feature for detecting automatically when updates are available:

Either in the Start menu or on your Desktop, right-click My Computer and select Properties on the pop-up menu,
In the System Properties dialog select the Automatic Updates tab.
Select the option that suits you best. Automatic (Recommended) is the default, I prefer "Notify me but don't automatically download or install them."
Click OK. You will now receive a message in the notification area when you have updates.

If you are using Windows 2000, or are using Windows XP or Windows Vista and have not selected an option for having the critical updates downloaded automatically, you will need to go to Windows Updates to download and install the critical updates. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/ and in the box in the upper right-hand corner select Security & Updates. On the Security and Updates page select Microsoft Update. Click on Express and follow the instructions. As there are sometimes updates to updates, you must keep returning until Windows Updates reports that there are no more critical updates available for your system. If you are using Windows 2000, at the Windows Update site you will have an option to turn on Automatic Updates, giving you the feature as Windows Vista and XP.

Bear in mind that when Microsoft publishes a critical update, they are also in effect informing the world that there is a bug in the version of Windows for which the update is intended, a bug that has the potential of being exploited. You may be certain that hackers see these published updates along with everyone else, and are eager to try them out. There have been instances of new exploits appearing within a week of the publication of the update, using the weakness covered by the patch. Hackers gamble that there will be many users who will not obtain the update in a timely manner. Therefore it important that you obtain these critical updates promptly!