The only problem with
not updating is that your computer eventually becomes extremely vulnerable to viruses and other malware.
Like you, I have automatic updates disabled on my Win7 partition. However, I still go in and look at what's pending, and pick and choose what to update.
Since I started playing Oblivion daily on this computer, I've also started running daily backups. I'd hate to lose everything due to one lousy update. I'm fortunate in that my Mac Pro is still running solid, and I have a spare drive to back everything up to on a daily basis.
Of course, there's nothing on my Win7 partition but Google Chrome, Oblivion and all its associated mods and utilities.
I often joke that this game is the
only reason I even have Win7 installed!