I spent three hours last night trying to get Mom's computer (which runs XP) to auto-update. Despite the fact that it's been setup to auto-download the updates since the day she got it, there were six critical update packages waiting for download. One was from October of 2001. Now, I know FreeBSD, for example, isn't the easiest thing on the planet to update, but at least their procedure works. While using windowsupdate.microsft.com, I ended up downloading the updates twice (a non-trivial complaint, since my parents have a 26.4kbps connection). Plus they didn't install correctly the first time, and I couldn't get them to retry the installation. Eventually, the auto-update service started downloading the updates. Why it hadn't before is still a mystery to me, so I threw up my hands and went to bed, letting it run overnight.
Fortunately, the updates installed without a hitch this morning, so I can once again reassure my mom that her computer is safe.
And that's a key warning sign that computers are going mainstream: when my mom (a computer illiterate) knows about the UPnP bug and wants me to look at her computer now.
