There's a substantial difference between "updates" and "upgrades". While I always do the former - at least the critical updates - I rarely do the latter, as upgrades are often more trouble than just backing up the data, wiping the disk and installing a new version from scratch. Driver issues are quite common and can be a major headache. That said, we did manage to upgrade Linda's aging PC from XP to 7 last year, without too much pain. I may consider upgrading my current systems to Windows 10, since it will be free for the first year. However, I've heard rumors that they may be trying to go to an annual subscription model for the OS, something that I would never accept. It would also depend on it's backward compatibility with other software, such as Office 2003 (I will not buy Office 360, as it's subscription-based).

With all due respect to Jay, leaving a system vulnerable to exploits by not performing updates simply doesn't make sense to me. As someone who used to do PC repair for a living, I've seen the kind of damage and anguish that can cause, first-hand. I'd rather risk the occasional bad patch from Microsoft than the potential devastation of a major infection. Especially with "ransomware" on the rise, I won't take that risk. In fact, my next step is to add "sandboxing" and probably VPN software.