Select the product you need help with

How To Configure Automatic Updates to Prompt You Before You Download Updates in Windows Server 2003

Article ID: 324798 - View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q324798

SUMMARY

This article describes how to configure the Automatic Updates feature to prompt you before you download updates.

How to Configure the Automatic Updates Feature

To configure the Automatic Updates feature to notify you before updates are downloaded and installed on your computer, follow these steps:

Click Start, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
Click the Automatic Updates tab.
Under Settings, click Notify me before downloading any updates and notify me again before installing them on my computer, and then click OK.

When Windows finds updates on the Windows Update Web site that apply to your computer, an icon appears in the notification area at the far right of the taskbar. The icon displays a message to notify you that updates are ready to be downloaded. When you click the message or the icon, you can select the specific updates that you want to download. Windows then downloads the updates that you selected in the background. When the updates are downloaded, the icon displays a message to notify you that updates for your computer are ready to be installed. You can then select the specific updates that you want to install.