Are There Any Hotfixes That I Could Leave Out, Cos

[Marztabator]

I share a broadband connection with my sister (who has her own comp), and in the location of my sis's machine is what looks like a hardware firewall and a router. I believe this firewall device has been responsible for successfully protecting us from the Blaster worm without having to install that patch at any point. Are there any hotfixes which might not be worth installing if my firewall can usually protect us from any dodgy bits? The IE Cumulative patch, for example?

[edg21]

IE culmulative patch patches browser vulnerabilities which you are still vulnerable to. Yes, it would be a good idea to update windows. No, you do not HAVE to update anything, but you're just asking for it if you don't.

[b0r3d]

Agreed. Although the windows updates arent necessary, they are highly recommended.

If you only want to install vital updates, then just install microsofts critical updates, and leave out the optional ones.

[Marztabator]

Thought I'd ask - will installing lots of hotfixes slow down system performance in any way? I'm kinda worried that having too much things installed on the system may make things slower.

[Aaron]

Not at all, only file replacements are being done by hotfixes, not file additions.