8.1 Update question

You probably already have it. There also was no Update 2, that was just a bunch of click-bait rumor mongering by the tech "press" based on rather flimsy sources.

Recommended updates are just that, recommended. Most of the time they either add minor new functionality or tweak existing functionality. Like one update was to add support for additional digital camera formats. That's generally a good gauge of what is meant by "minor". And tweaks to existing functionality might be like how after Update 1 they added some right-click menus on the start screen/tile interface. Most people might install them and never even notice the difference.

Just keep on avoiding driver updates from Windows Update and you should be fine. Maybe be a bit more diligent about checking for updates. Typically Microsoft releases patches on what's unofficially dubbed Path Tuesday, which is the second Tuesday of every month. So maybe check for new updates on the second Wednesday of every month. Sometimes there will be "out of band" updates for things that are being actively exploited, so it would really probably be better to set Windows Update to check for new updates, but then just prompt you to install them. Then you'll get a little balloon popup from the notification tray (frequently erroneously called the system tray) whenever there are new updates to install, but nothing actually happens until you give the explicit ok.

Is there a KB # for it? I run Belarc and it says the only one I'm missing is KB2538243 and when I click on it, it takes me to a MS article that's long and old that I didn't understand. Something about Visual C+. It looked big.

Yes, though I don't know off the top of my head what the KB number is. Just do a search for "Windows 8.1Update1" and you should be able to find some article or another where they try and impress the more gullible readers by listing a KB number. But here are a couple of indirect ways to tell if you have it installed.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/whats-new

And from a page lined from that article says that the update is KB2919355

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/install-latest-update-windows-8-1

That was less than 5 minutes of pre-coffee searching effort. There's also no need to use Belarc just to find if some update has been installed. All it's doing is pulling the list from the Windows Update logs. The above link will tell you how to find it without the need of any third party program. Another option is in Programs and Features from the Control Panel and selecting the "View Installed Updates" option on the left.

One final bit before I leave you. There's been a lot of misinformation floating around regarding Update 1. If you're using Windows 8.1 (the 1 is very significant here) and don't have Update 1 installed, you will no longer get any updates from Windows Update until Update 1 is installed. If you are running Windows 8, it doesn't affect you at all, which is the part a lot of people are getting confused about and it is largely down to the rather odd and awkward naming of this specific update. People have been claiming that Microsoft has already stopped supporting Windows 8.1 and all other kinds of nonsense, when it's really just that they are basing all future updates (to 8.1) on the baseline of a system that has Update 1 installed. It's no different from when in the past they've said that all future updates for Windows XP will require at least SP1 to be installed and then later SP2 and SP3 except that here the naming convention is a bit more muddied.

That was easy enough. I checked and do have the search button by my name on the start screen AND I do have KB 2919355. So I must be good. Now I can stop worrying, lol. I was searching around for Windows 8.1 updates, etc. and didn't come up with that second link you had.