Hey
NogginBoink,
He wouldn't be necessarily be going under the covers. He would just be downloading the updates that would normally be detected on the Windows Update website. This way, he doesn't have to get them downloaded over and over again when he needs to reinstall XP.
In this case, since he's doing a clean install, there wouldn't be a trace of what updates he's installed in the past. I've done a few, and checking the history, I can't find anything about past updates I've installed when I've had to reformat.
And, one more reason why I would do the same (download the updates and burn to a CD or something) is because lately, Windows Update has been buggy. It's referred updates that aren't even needed, like recommending an update for an Intel motherboard chipset...when the motherboard is VIA based!
