Jim McL -

Actually the Mickey and Norton systems are good enough that it dribbles the XP updates in unseen, and you only know they've arrived when the download is finished and the install kicks in - even on my intermittently functional dial-up. Of course you do have to be connected for long enough periods of time, but I read pretty slowly ...

All I ever see of either OS or AV updates is a flag that slides up to tell me something new has been added, except in the very rare cases where a reboot is requested after the install is done.

If you need a complete update, as with a reinstallation of the OS, you'd best have the CD(s) for the main updates regardless of what connection type you use. But I'm sure everyone ordered them ...

John