When you use Windows Update with Windows XP, there is a checkbox to not show an update again. I like that feature, and used it to hide IE7 on some of my machines. As The How-to Geek points out, there is a comparable feature in Vista, allowing you to hide those updates you’d rather not see or install. It’s easy to do, but not necessarily intuitive. Here’s how to hide those updates you don’t want.

1. Click the start menu, type Update and either choose Windows Update from the list, or press Enter.
   
2. In the Windows Update window, choose either View Available Updates or View Available Extras, they both take you to the same window.
   
3. A list of available updates and extras is displayed. Find the one you don’t want to see anymore, in my case, I don’t care to see all of the Language Packs for Vista Ultimate.
   
4. Right-click the name of the update you wish to hide, and from the menu, choose Hide Update. Note the shield icon, which means UAC will prompt us to approve this.
   
5. If you have UAC enabled (you should) click Continue to approve the action.
   
6. Notice that the item I ‘hid’ is now greyed out. You can now Cancel from the Available Updates window.
   
7. Windows Update will do a search to see if there are any new updates. Notice the numbers of available is now less than it was before.
   
8. Click the View Available Updates link again and you’ll see that the hidden updates are no longer listed. In my case, I hid all of the language extras.