Cluin -

Norton should not "bug you" about turning on Windows updates.

Norton will bug you about turning on NORTON updates.

Windows will bug you about turning on NORTON updates.

You can choose whether or not Windows will remind you about Windows updates.

IE7 is considered a Critical update, largely because it incorporates several features that are "beta versions" if you add them to IE6, and a lot of people hadn't figured out they were available and helpful. There is an improved "cookie blocker," an "anti-phishing" plugin, and a "suspect site" identifier that can be quite helpful. The suspect site identifier in particular requires that a larger percentage of users have it and use it, but potentially will be a very good deal as site data is tracked better. Most users who have installed IE7 probably have agreed to the OPTION of allowing the site validator and anti-phishing utilities to provide data to Microsoft about sites visited, but that's entirely optional, and can be turned off by those who are paranoid.

There are some additional things relating to security that are incorporated in IE7 that are not available for IE6, but at present there doesn't appear to be a significant difference in security if your IE6 is current. It's helpful, with IE6, if you've picked up a couple of the beta features, but not really mandatory. With IE7 you can easily turn off any of these as well.

Control of some features that you can have with either IE6 or IE7 is much easier with IE7 - once you learn where the controls are, and future patching likely will be simpler and more complete with IE7.

John