Windows 7 / Getting Started

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Removing Updates from Windows 7

If an update winds up making life with your PC worse instead of better, you can remove it. Head to Control Panel > Programs > View Installed Updates, right-click an update, and then select Remove.

Note: You can't remove all updates, however. Security-related updates are usually nonremovable. There's one problem with this action. The next time Windows Updates does its job, it will reinstall the update you just removed.

The workaround is to hide the update so that it doesn't get downloaded and installed again. Open Windows Update, and then click "Check for updates."

After Windows finds updates, click "View available updates." Right-click the update you don't want; select "Hide update." From now on, Windows Update ignores the update. If, later, you change your mind, click "Restore hidden updates," select the update you want installed, and then click Restore.

Resource Monitor

This little app (type resource into the Start menu) is a dashboard for your PC's guts: its processor chip (CPU), memory, and disk space. It shows you how much of your PC's horsepower and capacity is being used up, and by what.

Even when you're only running a program or two, dozens of computational tasks (processes) are going on in the background. The top table of the Overview screen shows you all the different processes-visible and invisible-that your PC is handling at the moment.

Some are easily recognizable (such as wmplayer.exe, meaning Windows Media Player); others are background system-level operations you don't normally see. For each item, you can see the percentage of CPU being used, how much memory it's using, and other details.