>>>>>In order to upgrade my IE from IE 9 to 10 I get message that I need to upgrade Windows 7 to at least Pack 1. I do find Windows 7 Pack 1 upgrade from MS site. Then I did a search for Pack 2, just in case, but all the results point to sites other than MS.
>>>>>Is Pack 2 a legitimate upgrade? Or should I just install Pack 1?
>>>>
>>>>SP2 does not (yet) exist, it's probably a scam.
>>>>
>>>>Try first through Windows Update: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-CA/windows7/install-windows-7-service-pack-1
>>>>
>>>>If it does not appear there, you can download it from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=5842 . The trick with that link is to click on the red "Download" button, then when you are prompted to "choose the download you want", scroll down and select "windows6.1-KB976932-X64.exe" (903.2MB). That's the 64-bit SP; for lurkers, if you want the 32-bit SP select "windows6.1-KB976932-X86.exe" (537.8MB).
>>>
>>>The link you cited is what I found and I did download the file windows6.1-KB976932-X64.exe but have not installed it yet. I am debating (with myself) if I should run this update .exe or update through Windows update.
>>>Thank you.
>>
>>For whatever reason, I haven't always seen SP1 available in Windows Update when I'd expect it should be. Maybe it's because Windows Update thinks certain prerequisites should be installed first. Even if it is available through Windows Update, it always installs by itself regardless of any other updates that may be available.
>>
>>I usually bypass any of that nonsense and install it directly from that download.
>
>I already started to update from Windows Update. I did see the SP1 there but it seems that Windows Update runs into an error when downloading it. I may have to go with the Download .EXE but my concern that I will get tons of MS crap with it.

There is no extra "crap", per se. That download is primarily for IT professionals, the idea being if you're updating 10 or 100 machines you don't have to download SP1 components 10 or 100 times (once per machine) as you would through Windows Update, you download it once then execute from shared media.

If by "crap" you mean debug symbols, SDKs etc. those are available separately, they aren't included in service packs.

In a perfect world applying SP1 to a single machine through Windows Update might be slightly more efficient. Theoretically, Windows Update can examine your machine and determine that some components of SP1 have already been installed via separate updates, and not include those components in what gets downloaded to apply SP1. I don't know if this is done in practice; although most current update installers are transactional, installing a partial SP1 such that it could be properly uninstalled later if necessary could get pretty tricky. Having installed service packs on various OSs over the years through both Windows Update and IT pro downloads, I can't recall ever seeing that doing it through Windows Update was noticeably smaller or more efficient.