Internet explorer11 critical updates NOT delivered

Happy New Year. I decided to blow a small amount of money on the UK National Lottery a few days ago and was horrified when the site told me that my IE11 was not up to date.

I've accepted the new Microsoft procedure of not enabling Users to pick & choose Updates and am uneasy about following some workarounds posted elsewhere here - I simply haven't the confidence in my PC abilities. A search on MS Community showed that two links provided by a Forum Moderator failed - page unavailable; a poor start.

I created my own thread there [http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/forum/ie11-iewindows_10/is-my-internet-explorer-11-v11576143930-the-latest/3c71f9b1-7d08-46f9-b78a-372aa6002731] and then things became even more confusing. Two critical Updates in October hadn't been installed on my PC and then the Microsoft Update Catalog website told me that I am missing three critical updates, not two.

I'm hoping that the FM has provided me with the solution to install the missing Updates but I've asked her why the blasted critical updates weren't delivered automatically - was it my fault (in which event have I missed other updates) or was it MS's - the October updates were flawed as you'll recall.

So a word of advice - you may wish to follow the links in the MS thread to see if you too are in the same boat.

This is my current version of IE11:

IE11 - ABOUT 2017-01 1st v2.png