Sometimes when I do the Windows updates, some of the most

[yy4me]

annoying things happen. Since you all know what a dummy I am, here goes.

I always wait a week or so after after the release before doing the update thing, just in case someone here finds some lulu of a thing is going wrong. OK, yesterday I did the last update from the MS site, I have Windows XP IE6, SP2
It took about a half an hour and now, as I logged on this morning, I have a new split screen. On the right, I must now click on owner to get this gizmo rolling. I can't even remember what was on the left. Didn't seem to require that I do anything.

Even more annoying I now have a new Icon in the tray that says "search Desktop". Now, my desktop is very sparse. I am an old lady user, the same old e-mail and internet type of user. I don't want that big white box there. Plus I don't want to keep being reminded that I don't have Version 7. Basically, since this machine was fixed, its going just fine.

Can you ever un-install all the updates? Maybe start over, unchecking the ones you don't want if you can figure out what they are?

On the MS screen for updating, I always check custom to avoid the Version 7, now it insists I install sp3. Geeze, MS, leave me alone. The updates box is popping up all the time.

[DaveJ]

1. Don't you have automatic updates turned off?

That sounds like what you want to do. Go to Control Panel and click the icon for Automatic Updates and make sure it is turned completely off. You may have the option on to "Notify me but don't atomically download and install them".

The search box sounds like Windows Desktop Search and can be uninstalled in Add/Remove Programs. It's probably listed as Windows Desktop Search.

The following is just my opinion... I know I'm in the minority in my thinking here, but personally I've never had any problem with updates and leave automatic updates completely on, and I've have never had a problem. At work we also has automatic updates on every PC and it's never caused a problem. But, that's just my experience. Turning them off is fine too.

You might actually like IE7 though. You can have multiple websites in one Window that you can tab between, instead of having a bunch of different windows open. But of course it's up to you.....