How are loading and installation of updates organized?

Advise me, please, where to read how are loading and installation of updates
organized? I'd like to read this in summary form and without unnecessary
details. For example, why do some updates appear in the Notification Area in
the form of a yellow shield, and some are installed when you turn off your
computer? Why sometimes there are no updates to install on your computer,
but when you check the Microsoft site, it appears that some of them need to
be installed? Are only the Service Packs are communicative updates or other
updates can be communicative too? Is there description of this system's
algorithm?

Thank you

Lev

"Levlg" <> wrote in message news:...
> Advise me, please, where to read how are loading and installation of updates
> organized? I'd like to read this in summary form and without unnecessary
> details. For example,

> why do some updates appear in the Notification Area in
> the form of a yellow shield, and some are installed when
> you turn off your computer?


On which OS? FWIW on XPsp3 I have seen this occur
when there is a critical update which requires a reboot
already downloaded but another one scheduled for download.
Apparently that can cause the AU icon to stop showing.
Otherwise I can doubleclick on the icon and get some status.
Also, if I had any reason to suspect that such a thing
might happen (e.g. if the BITS service had been active)
I could switch to a cmd window and use bitsadmin
to find out if there was one which was still downloading
or suspended. Even more obscurely I could use the
ReportingEvents.log or the WindowsUpdate.log to detect
a similar condition.


> Why sometimes there are no updates to install on your computer,
> but when you check the Microsoft site, it appears that some of them need to
> be installed?


Check the severity of the updates. AU only downloads
critical and high priority updates. Also, some updates
are "throttled", e.g. you can detect that that has happened
if you go into the WindowsUpdate.log and find messages
which imply that. The actual word used in the message
is not "throttle" but something like "regulat".

Note that the above observations are for XPsp3.
Some of them appear to still apply to Vista and W7
but other differences are happening with those OS
that I don't yet fully understand.


> Are only the Service Packs are communicative updates or other
> updates can be communicative too? Is there description of this system's
> algorithm?


Ha! Security/obscurity IMO. Reverse engineering will out.


>
> Thank you
>
> Lev


HTH

Robert Aldwinckle
---