First, I have a new machine. The copy of WinXP is genuine.

My first days with the machine have been taken up with intstalling old favorites, with a great deal of dialup time taken up with installing various updates, including Microsoft.   I usually check out what the updates are before installing.

This morning after a good many hours of download time here comes the "Wonderfully Genuine" XP update. Being a sometimes stubborn person, I decided NOT to install the update, just on general principles.

So here comes the Second point. What happens if I refuse to install it? Will "they" eventually figure that out and refuse to update my machine further?

Even as I am typing this, the Microsoft shield pops up in the tray saying it is downloading updates.

I did read the above comments reasonably well, but did not notice a discussion of the consequences of this mildy defiant act.