Please clarify the Automatic Update concept

Some people in my department seem to be uncertain about how automatic
updates work even after reading the official documentation.

My question is fairly simple. If a user with administrator rights
turns on automatic updates on a PC, sets them to occur at say 2 a.m.
every night when the user is home, logged off, and the computer is
always on... will critical security updates continue to occur (download
AND install) automatically, even if the regular user of the PC may have
restricted rights?

 

How to configure and use Automatic Updates in Windows XP:
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=306525

How to schedule automatic updates in WinXP, Win2K and Win2K03
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=327838

I would not choose 2:00 AM as the time to check for updates.

 

Why is 2 A.M. a bad time?

Also, thank you for the references, and I believe I understand them,
that is if an administraive user (not network admin but admin local to
the machine) turns on automatic updates they will occur even if the
daily user has restricted access. Is this correct? Could you please
confirm this for me?

 

To keep track of things, it helps immensely if you include all of previous
message(s) in your replies to the newsgroup. Thank you.

Even though the user is "always on", is it always online & connected? If
so, 2:00 AM would be fine.

Yes, AU will run and updates will download & install (in most cases) even if
the User Profile does not have Admin privileges.

 

Thank you.