Hi Murdock,

I have found that all laptops/desktops that run windows as an operating system do degrade in speed over time. I would suggest you get yourself a utility like Glary Utilities, there is a free version available, and run through the different areas to optimise you laptop. (http://www.glarysoft.com/)

Personally I do not switch off the Windows updates, as I believe they are released for a reason. What you could do however is to change the way the updates are effected on your laptop, say for example, set it so that it tells you about the updates, but does not automatically install them. Then you can later on when you have the time and its convenient to you, authorise the updates you require and let windows perform them for you. Using a laptop the ideal time to do this is obviously when you are not connected via your 3G, but rather are connected to the internet via your office network or an ADSL line. (Some updates can consume huge chuncks of your available bandwidth).

Regards
Marius