On XP:    Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Services/Security Center    Stop the service, then set it to "Disabled" This will stop the red "shield" I've had essentially zero issues with Windows Update. I'm not really a power user, but by comparison to most people I know, I am. I think it's important enough to continue to receive updates, so Windows Update is still set to download updates and notify me. That way, I can install them at my own convenience and reboot as required at my own convenience, not when M$ decides it wants to. M$ is still very much supporting XP. They have finally cut off sales of XP... I have no idea of all the ramifications of that, e.g. if stores still have it in stock, can they still sell it? OS updates are by no means unique to M$. Apple does it, and in fact they have much more frequent charged ($$) upgrades than M$. Unix, Linux, IBM z/OS all issue regular updates. I am not aware of an OS vendor (one who's still in business) which does not issue OS updates. It's also not all that terribly uncommon for OS patches to break third-party software. Sometimes it's the third party vendor that has to issue an update, sometimes it's the OS vendor. It's just how our much-too-fast-paced world works, especially with really bright jerks that write viruses and malware, like the one that tricked my 12-yr-old last week and took me about 8 hours of #@&^%'g around to fix. Paul Bruesch Stillwater, MN <div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Jul 12, 2008 at 8:47 AM, AlliedPianoCraft <<a href="mailto:AlliedPianoCraft@hotmail.com">AlliedPianoCraft@hotmail.com</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Ron, How do you get that pesky shield with the "!" to stop bothering you? Al Guecia </blockquote></div>