It isn’t as if we needed another reason to perform regular maintenance on our computers, but a recent development in the world of Windows XP has proven our point once again.  A recent article on engadget.com, titled Windows XP patch fiasco gets even crazier, Microsoft now scrambling for solutions, indicates that some recent Windows XP security patches resulted in  BSODs (that’s Blue Screen of Death) for a small group of PC users.  We’ll quickly give you the rundown on this development and show you how to prevent the issue on your PC.

First thing’s first: if you have a yellow shield in your system tray (the icon that indicates a Microsoft update is available for your PC) don’t update just yet.  This goes against everything we have ever told you here on JumpstartMyPC.com, but it’s OK just this once.  Why?  Microsoft recently reported that existing malware on a “limited number” of computers caused those machines to blue-screen when the update was applied.  There is a technical explanation for all of this (available in the engadget article), but all we really need to know is that our PCs must cleansed of any malware before any updates are applied.  Microsoft has already “yanked” the patch, but some of you might have already downloaded the files without knowing it.

(more…)