Dale -

Only updates that Microsoft considers "Critical" for your security are automatically downloaded. As long as you remain registered to receive updates they will continue being downloaded to you.

If I understand what you're describing, your "mildly defiant" act only declined to install an update that had been received and is on your machine ready to be installed.

I'm not setup to see an indication that a download is in progress. I only see a shield when a download is complete and is ready to be installed. Your setup may be different than mine.

The normal message I get when a download is complete offers an "Install Now" or "Install Later." I believe there is a "Never Install this update" option to allow you to reject a particular update completely, but I haven't looked for it. I don't even see the popup shield in some cases, since "no response" allows the installation to proceed automatically after a short time.

Depending on which mildly defiant action you took, the download may still install when the machine is idle, it may sit on your machine until the next download is ready to install, and may be installed along with a subsequent one the next time you give permission to install, or it may be downloaded again the next time the update system looks to see what updates are not installed on your machine.

Even while you're signed up for automatic updates, you can go directly to the update site and check for available updates. You must do that to get any "optional" updates. The automatic system will look to see if you have already "been there" and have everything before it re-sends an update, and should not re-send anything you already have, so if you've missed installing one that's considered critical it probably will (re-send and) offer it again.

When you click "Start" you should have an icon on the popup menu for "Windows Update" and probably a separate one for "Microsoft Update." The Windows Update button will connect you to the web site where you can manually get updates to Windows. The Microsoft Update button will take you to a site where you can manually get updates to all Microsoft programs on your machine. (Using either of these, you can look at the optional updates that are not offered by the automated system.) If you don't have the Microsoft Update button, you should look for "Office Updates" occasionally (search "download" at any Microsoft web site).

If you're curious, your C:\Windows folder should contain an "uninstall" file for most updates that have been applied to your machine. (My current count here is 111 files.) The files are "Hidden/System" files, so you may have to turn on the "view hidden and system files" at Tools in Windows Explorer to see them. The file names are generally like the recent "$NtUninstallKB912919$" with no file extension. The KB912919 identifies a "Knowledge Base" article that you can look up at the Microsoft web site to see information about that specific update. (Putting the number, in this case KB912919, into any search box at a Microsoft site is usually sufficient, although if you find an "Advanced Search" where you can check the "Search Knowledge Base" box it works best. Results may be mainly "S-documents" [Security Bulletins] that contain links to the KB articles.)

On the off-chance that you might actually want to uninstall an update, you should NOT attempt to use these "uninstall" records directly. Don't mess with them. Go to the KB articles for complete uninstall instructions, if you need remove a patch. Note also that some patches cannot be uninstalled (except by reinstalling Windows and starting over).

John