Does this make sense to anyone?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dragon
  • Start date Start date
D

Dragon

A friend tells me that his computer, running XP, throws up a warning that
appears to come form Microsoft.
It claims that his security needs updating and that it will take 4 hours (
on dial up).
Somewhere it mentions Option 2.
When ignored the window fades away rather than closing suddenly.
Every time the computer is started it re-appears then fades away.
The computer normally updates XP automatically as it also does to AVG 7.5
free.
Friend is not very knowledgeable with computers as you can probably tell
from the lack of detail above.

What might be going on here?

Henry
 
A friend tells me that his computer, running XP, throws up a warning that
appears to come form Microsoft.
It claims that his security needs updating and that it will take 4 hours (
on dial up).
Somewhere it mentions Option 2.
When ignored the window fades away rather than closing suddenly.
Every time the computer is started it re-appears then fades away.
The computer normally updates XP automatically as it also does to AVG 7.5
free.
Friend is not very knowledgeable with computers as you can probably tell
from the lack of detail above.

What might be going on here?

Henry
Click to expand...

It is hard to say whether the message is legitimate without seeing the
actual message. Is it a small popup ballon from the system tray, or is it
a large message window? As far as the 4 hours, that is not unreasonable,
as Microsoft did issue quite a few patches this last go-round. I know that
several months ago it took me 7 hours to download the XP updates, so that
isn't all that unusual when downloading a lot of hotfixes on dial-up. As
for Option 2, Microsoft usually gives you the option of automatically
downloading and installing updates, or downloading only - and you install
the updates yourself. More than likely the latter is the Option 2 referred
to. You mention AVG, but XP updates are completelly different in that they
are system fixes and updates rather than software. The one thing that bugs
me is that I don't remember XP Security Center ever giving me a warning as
to how long the download would take - but, that doesn't mean it isn't
legit.
 
Bullseye said:
It is hard to say whether the message is legitimate without seeing the
actual message. Is it a small popup ballon from the system tray, or is it
a large message window? As far as the 4 hours, that is not unreasonable,
as Microsoft did issue quite a few patches this last go-round. I know
that
several months ago it took me 7 hours to download the XP updates, so that
isn't all that unusual when downloading a lot of hotfixes on dial-up. As
for Option 2, Microsoft usually gives you the option of automatically
downloading and installing updates, or downloading only - and you install
the updates yourself. More than likely the latter is the Option 2
referred
to. You mention AVG, but XP updates are completelly different in that
they
are system fixes and updates rather than software. The one thing that
bugs
me is that I don't remember XP Security Center ever giving me a warning as
to how long the download would take - but, that doesn't mean it isn't
legit.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your opinions which echo my own.
Unfortunately my friend is too far away to pop over and see for myself.
I mentioned AVG and XP updates simply to indicate that he is used to having
the updates to both of these on a regular basis.
Thus it would 'seem' that this warning is something new.

Henry
 
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