Count your blessings, don't look a gift Windows OS in the mouth, and stuff like that!


rocktivity

Do you have the KB (knowledge base) article numbers ?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/which-windows-updates-installed#1TC=windows-7

Read that, please. Each update will have a KB number. You can google the KB number and find out all the details.

That shows a huge pile of info, sorted by date.

I think my question was answered in reply #4; apparently I jumped to a conclusion too soon. But this may be useful info to have.

It's a screenshot of my Win8.1 Windows Update window. It should be very similar in Win7 and even in WinXP. See the KB numbers ? You can google those or just go to the Microsoft site and do a search.

I can see my update history on MS's update page, so now I have those KB numbers. But there's no Windows Update Control Panel in XP, so (apparently) the .log file is the only list that's actually on my computer.

As it turns out, it's not going to matter much longer. I've discovered Linux Mint and will (eventually) drag the rest of the family over. And my suspicions about these updates have been alleviated.

http://windowstipoftheday.blogspot.com/2005/01/using-show-updates-option-windows-xp.html

For: Windows XP Professional and Home Edition

Before Windows XP SP2, in the Add or Remove Programs control panel the Microsoft updates that were applied to your system would show in here. This is great if want to see what patches were applied to your system. Although it was annoying if you had to scroll through the list trying to find the program that you wanted to remove, and accidentally removed a system patch or service pack.

In SP2 a new feature prevent the system updates from being displayed in the list by default. So if you want to see the system date you have enable this feature.

- Open the Control Panel folder
- Open the Add or Remove Programs control panel
- At the top of the Add or Remove Programs window, check the "Show updates" checkbox.

You're now able to scroll down and see the system updates intermixed with the other programs.

The rollout to customers is staggered over the week so that the internet is not flooded with traffic.

This is the last month that will contain updates for Windows XP. MS Office and other software you may have will continue to be updated each month.

I quit wondering when the second one arrived. Looks like that was premature.