I Am Currently: Updating Windows  

A regular part of the job, despite the presence of a sever based update and patching system in place, is to install Windows updates on Windows XP based computers as they roll back and forth from the client that uses the computer to the technician that supports the computer. Ideally a client will not have local administrator privileges on the workstation and the desktop tech will be the one to perform software installs and run updates. Realistically, though, some people do end up being local admins on their workstations through various forms of neglect and/or necessity. (Some applications still have some rather old school architecture and require the client using the software to be able to write to the application's install directory in the Program Files folder, or worse, in any folder it creates for whatever purposes it needs, which kills the possibility of simply granting a single client local admin rights to only that particular folder.) The result of a regular non-technician client having local admin privileges is not that the person regular performs necessary software updates (although it does make things that auto-update work properly) as a matter of conscience choice. Instead the result is usually a negative one based on an ill-fated click in checking out results from an internet search. The negative result tending toward a virus at best and extortion-ware at worst (and I have seen three cases of the latter in the past month). So as machines come in for troubleshooting I run the updates and get them as up-to-date with operating system updates as possible. If other updates are available, such as Java or iTunes or Quicktime or Flash or Adobe, I try to push those into the mix as well. And that is what I am doing this morning as I sip coffee and visit the Microsoft update site a few times.