I don't know which CD you're referring to. I would only install the updates, critical or not based on whether they pertained to me, but the critical ones were downloaded because I thought they needed to be! I think I was told it was okay to update with the HP updates but not to rush to download the Microsoft updates because of the problems--I was told to contact HP directly before doing this. My updates were done when I was notified by HP of the updates and the Microsoft update may have been obtained after I read about it being available.

My situation now is I have XP Home up and running again with no updates or upgrades at all installed--what would you do now?