Why do all Windows XP updates now show up in the control panel?

Factual Questions
1

They didn’t show up in there before…

Should I leave them there ? Seems like a long list.

2

There’s a little checkbox at the top of the widow that says “show updates.” Clear it and they will not be displayed.

I find it useful when tracking down a problem – some updates cause additional problems, and knowing if you have them installed can save some time. Other than that, I leave them hidden.
ETA: I’m assuming that you meant that they were showing up in Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs. If they’re piling on all higgledy-piggledy in the control panel menu, I don’t know what’s going on.

3

That’s peculiar. I don’t have that on mine.

4

I wrote my reply on an XP Pro SP2 box. I went and turned on a Dell Inspiron running XP Home SP2 (the same box you helped with here, and it’s now working fine thankyouverymuch!).

Both show the same thing: at the top of the Add or Remove Programs window, with Change or Remove Programs selected, at the top it says Currently installed programs: then some space, then the Show updates checkbox, then the Sort by dropdown. I swear I’m not making this up!!!

5

Ah, the Add/Remove dialog. I thought we were talking about the Control Panel itself.

6

Funny… half of me was thinking that without the edit, it might appear that way. The other half was thinking I was just looking for any old excuse to use higgledy-piggledy in a sentence. (The third half was wondering who taught me to count.)

7

I wonder if MS decided to change the behavior of this on some Patch Tuesday a while ago and didn’t tell us.

My work PC (XP Pro with SP2) has the “Show updates” checkbox, but a PC (XP Home, no SP2) I was working on yesterday did not have that checkbox, so all of the updates were listed.

8

Thank you Rhythmdvl ! I hadn’t even noticed that little checkbox. Got to open my eyes. What’s strange is that these updates didn’t show before (nobody sneaked in my apartment to check that box ). :slight_smile:
But sometimes computers do unexpected things. Like today, for example, while working on a .doc, all the .tmp files icons showed on the start screen. They disappeared when I closed the file.