What are the advantages and disadvantages of Windows Update?

Answer 1

Like all major software companies, Microsoft continually find and fix problems with their products. Windows Update allows you to download and install these fixes, either manually or automatically, so that your computer is always kept up to date. These updates can include important problem fixes and updates to fix security vulnerabilities, so it's beneficial for you to have these updates installed. In terms of disadvantages, downloading and installing the updates does take up some of your computer's resources, but if you have this scheduled to run automatically at a time when you're not using the computer, then that shouldn't be too much of a problem. There is also a slight risk with any update that it might destabilise your system, and you might have to back it out. There might be something in your specific configuration which the update hasn't been tested with, and which it might be incompatible with. I don't know if there are any statistics available on problems caused by updates, but I would imagine that the benefits far outweigh the risks.