Microsoft released a swag of new updates for Windows today, so make sure you head over to Windows Update, and tell all your unco non-tech friends and family to do so as well.

wouldnt they all be on autoupdate?
mine are

Didn't see them in WSUS :S

I can wait.

I got them a couple of minutes ago...

tell all your unco non-tech friends

hey mantra, update windows!
lol pwnt

I got a couple of security things and some bs update for a stop error. I didn't bother with that since I don't get stop errors. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Can someone please tell me what the point of an update is [for a home user] if you are behind a router, don't run IE and don't connect to other networks (VPN, non-home LAN or otherwise).

I'm curious and not having a go at anyone :)

I'm still running XP SP1 with only one update applied to allow me to hibernate without an error message.

If you are still using XP SP1 then you might need to read this http://www.microsoft.com/windows/support/endofsupport.mspx

Note that still using Windows 2000 SP4 ;)

Can someone please tell me what the point of an update is [for a home user] if you are behind a router, don't run IE and don't connect to other networks (VPN, non-home LAN or otherwise).

Not all Windows Updates are security related (although most are). At some point you will run into trouble with software that requires SP2, or a chain of dependencies built around an update.

While the precautions you've noted will eliminate most of the risk, there have been some pretty nasty "passive" security holes patched that didn't require the user to do anything particularly stupid - the recent GDI one comes to mind.

Most [home users] are also not behind vaguelly tight security, use IE, and click random s*** with abandon.