As recently as your machine was purchased, I'd guess that you probably got the SP1 and SP2 patches both included in your original installation, so you got the small update package. My original installation didn't have those two, but I did order the CDs for both so that I could reinstall and patch up to that point before I'd have to connect and start downloading. Both of them were installed from the CDs on my 3 WinXP machines, so I didn't have to download them.

Received as they were issued, my "Patch List" in the programs folder shows more than 125 or so installed. As later patches come out, earlier ones are rolled into the later ones, so the 50 odd ones you got with download should include everything in the 125 that I got incrementally.

Office patches that I noticed haven't been too frequent, with the biggest being the macro virus patch and a couple of buffer overrun fixes. There are a few optional Office patches that wouldn't be included in the automatic downloads that might be of interest, but it would depend largely on what browser features you use. Several of the optional office fixes were for things that are turned off by default and that most people are unlikely to discover could be turned on.

Aside from the Microsoft stuff, most OEM disks will load some stuff by other (non-Microsoft) makers. One of the really irritating bugs is with Macromedia Flash. The had a rather significant vulnerability in the versions recently provided by the OEM makers, and they've been less than open about pushing the patch. Your recent machine might have the latest version, but if not it's a rather large download. Adobe has purchased Macromedia fairly recently, so you get it from the Adobe site - if you want to use Flash. (I'd rather not use it, but it seems necessary for a lot of web sites.)

Both Real Player and QuickTime, if you use them, have had minor patches disquised as "new versions." Nothing that I've seen reported on them looked particularly threatening; but if you want to plug everything possible, you'll want to check for new versions or at least to see that anything installed from your Instl CD is the latest thing.

It would be nice to be able to say that on a campus connection she could rely on the campus network for firewall protection so AV alone would be enough, but few campus networks are really clean, and many of them have more script-kiddies and bot-weenies inside the network firewall than most of us are exposed to out in the wild wicked world. (I'm assuming she'll be on the school's net, and probably will use it for web and email?) Some schools make up nice little booklets on how to be compatible and safe, or may tell you on a web page; but the quality of advance info you get can be extremely variable. I've heard rumors of a couple of campus IT managers who claim that individual firewalls are "incompatible" with their networks. I don't think I really believe it, but it might not hurt to see if the school would like to offer an opinion about what should - or should not - be on a student's machine. (And leave a little space on the HD for things they might claim she has to add.)

John