Description of Automatic Updates in Windows Millennium Edition (Me)

This article describes the Automatic Updates feature in Windows Millennium Edition (Me).

The Automatic Updates feature replaces the Critical Update Notification utility is intended to automatically deliver critical updates that are available on the Windows Update Web site with little user interaction by utilizing the available bandwidth of your connection to the Internet. If no connection exists, Automatic Updates are suspended until the next connection occurs before checking for or downloading updates.

Automatic Updates are designed to check for updates every 24 hours. If there are no updates available, Automatic Updates resets and then checks again in 24 hours after the Internet connection is established. If the download is interrupted, Automatic Updates resumes at a later time when there is available bandwidth.

You can configure Automatic Updates by using the Automatic Updates tool in Control Panel. There are three settings:

• Automatically download updates and notify me when they are ready to be installed.
• Notify me before downloading any updates and notify me again when they are ready to be installed.
• Turn off Automatic updating. I will update my computer manually.

The default setting is "Automatically download updates and notify me when they are ready to be installed".

The first time you run Automatic Updates, a small globe icon appears on the right side of the taskbar. If you click this icon, a wizard starts and prompts you to read and accept the End User License Agreement. When you do so, the End User License Agreement starts the Automatic Updates process. Note that is you do not accept the End User License Agreement, you must connect to the Microsoft Windows Update Web site to manually install the critical updates: When the update package is ready to be installed, a balloon appears above the right side of the taskbar. If you then click this balloon or the Automatic Updates icon, you receive a dialog box that contains the following three buttons:

• Details: Provides a description of the package(s) that are available.
• Remind Me Later: So you can install the downloaded package at a later time.
• Install: Immediately installs the package(s).

After you install the package(s), you may be prompted to restart your computer. Save your work, quit all programs, and then click Restart to complete the installation.