[SOLVED] C++ programs

Can anyone tell me why I have so many unsolicited C++ programs on my system?
They seem to eminate from windows updates. See below.
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition [ENU]
Microsoft Corporation/10/10/2007/1.72 MB/3.1.0000
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 ATL Update kb973923 - x64 8.0.50727.4053
Microsoft Corporation/7/27/2010/0.25 MB/8.0.50727.4053
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable
Microsoft Corporation 10/10/2007 2.69 MB 8.0.59193
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable (x64)
Microsoft Corporation 4/8/2010 0.69 MB 8.0.56336
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable (x64) - KB2467175
Microsoft Corporation/4/14/2011 0.57 MB 8.0.51011
Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable - KB2467175
Microsoft Corporation 4/14/2011 0.30 MB 8.0.51011
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable - KB2467174 - x64 9.0.30729.5570
Microsoft Corporation 4/14/2011 0.77 MB 9.0.30729.5570
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable - KB2467174 - x86 9.0.30729.5570
Microsoft Corporation/4/14/2011/0.58 MB/9.0.30729.5570
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable - x64 9.0.30729.4148
Microsoft Corporation 4/8/2010/ 0.77 MB/9.0.30729.4148
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable - x86 9.0.30729.4148
Microsoft Corporation 4/8/2010 0.58 MB/9.0.30729.4148
-----------------------------------------
Is there a way to stop the updates or just keep the latest if I need to and
unistall the others?
Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

You can choose to hide any updates that you don't want. Some are optional, such as the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 Client. While you may not necessarily need these type of updates, they generally don't use that much drive space, and by installing these updates, your OS is more up to date.

I've not had any problems with these type of updates, so I let them come in, and install them all. However, you can remove some of them, the one in particular, I don't know exactly what it's used for, so I'd prefer not to give the OK to remove it.

Many of these updates gives us a better experience with Windows, and some are needed to run particular apps.

Cat

Thanks for the prompt reply Cat.
I feel much relieved now.
gcucak

They are subroutines (pieces of code) used by various Microsoft programs (or other vendors who want to use the Microsoft standardized routines for things like scroll bar display etc) and unfortunately they are different in different years and they are different for 32bit (x86) and 64bit(x64) so you have several different flavors to satisfy whichever routine is called.

TrainableMan
Thanks for the information.
Answers many questions I had.