Windows Vista is a great operating system, but it comes with some built-in features that can be frustrating. One of these features is the ability to disable or hide optional updates. This can make your computer more reliable and faster, but it can also be a bit of a hassle if you don’t know how to do it. Here’s how to disable or hide optional updates on Windows Vista:

  1. Open the Start menu and type “cmd” (without the quotes).
  2. Type “netstat -an” (without the quotes) and press Enter.
  3. The “netstat -an” output will show you all of the connections and activities on your computer. You’ll see something like this: Conn=1 Sess=0x0 Ctx=0xffffffff [ 0%] [ 1%] [ 2%] [ 3%] Tcpip=0xffffffff Tcpip_nodelay=1 Inet_addr=127.0x2f6:192.168.1.100 Inet_port=8443 Proto=TCP Rcvr_timeout=-50000 Rx_timeout=-50000 Udp_port=8443 Proto=UDP Rcvr_timeout=-50000 Rx_timeout=-50000 Ipv4_port=8443 Proto=IPv4 Rcvr_timeout=-50000 Rx_timeout=-50000 Ipv6_port=8443 Proto=IPv6 Rcvr_timeout=-50000 Rx_timeout=-50000 Conn = 1 Sess = 0x0 Ctx = 0xffffffff [ 0%] [ 1%] [ 2%] [ 3%] tcpip = 0xffffffff Tcpip_nodelay = 1 Inet _ addr = 127 . x

Just open up Windows Update, and you might see something like this:

But when you click on View available updates, you see this:

I have this sneaky suspicion that I will never ever need the Finnish Language Pack, being in the US and all.

All you have to do to hide these updates, is to right-click on an item in the list, and choose “Hide update” from the menu.

Now when I look at Windows Update, I see what I’m expecting to see in the first place:

If you ever decide to move to Finland, and that you want to install the updates, there’s a “Restore hidden updates” link on the left-hand side of the screen that will let you put them back in the list.