Many of you are seeing an update for “.NET Framework 3.5 SP1” that isn’t installed automatically; the little gold shield or Vista update icon appears by the clock looking for you to click the OK button manually.
.NET Framework is a programming environment that underlies many programs. This is a safe update that improves performance and fixes lots of little issues, but it’s not likely to make any difference that you’ll notice. It shouldn’t break anything. (I won’t be installing it on your servers for a while – that’s a different environment.)
You should install the update but be prepared – it may take a long time to install! It’s been running 10-15 minutes in my experience. The system has to restart and it’s a slow restart, as the update continues to do its work during the process of shutting down and starting up.
There are reports that some people have had to turn off their antivirus programs for the update to install successfully. That has not been necessary with OneCare.
When updates are pushed out from Microsoft, we have to be diligent. Remember, all of the news reports about the latest virus are irrelevant to you because you installed the emergency update released last October. I know it’s a pain, but stay up to date!
