Hello Grandpaw, This is Mr. Chan from Vancouver, Canada. Regarding the Automatic update on Windows, it will not update anything to your PC automatically UNLESS it is a critical issue from Microsoft standpoint as I set my automatic update everyday at 3 AM. Nothing had happened BUT once Microsoft sent you an email telling you there is something to be updated; I then went to Windows Update, the Update would be downloaded successfully. I remember when SP1 was around, there was a small icon on the right hand corner telling you that the update was in prograss, not any more since the SP2 had been released.
Regarding the " system restore ", I just create a new date after I finished using Norton Anti-Virus, make sure that no virus in my PC say 7PM on 29th October, 2004. Then you go to " Program ", you will see whole bunch of programs bounce up. On top of it, you will see, " Accessibilities ", once you point your cursor to that, on your right at the bottom, you will see " system restore ", once you open the "system restore ", you create the date which will be 7PM of 29th October, 2004. Then you are done. Say three days later, you find something on your PC is not running as it used to be. You go to the " system restore ", on the calender, click 29th October, 2004. Your PC will be back in shape as 29th October, 2004 within minutes and it will not affect any new program that you have installed after the 29th October, 2004.
I use the " system restore " mainly to capture the " Windows Start " sound as very often that click sound is disappeared though I went to the sound categories and worked on it. To save the time and trouble, I simply use "system restore " to get back the "Windows Start sound".