windoze update is, i think, inherently relient on IE's integration into your system... i could be wrong, though. WU was one of the first things to go (or break, depending on how you look at it) back when i started stripping win98 down some ways back. it never had much to offer anyways, except patches for the crappy software that i would mostly only use for WU to begin with...
as for that _other_ page... have a look at the source (it should be there, even if nothing's being displayed)... it speaks for itself. all popups and scripting... damn server tried to give me half a dozen cookies, too... some things are better left alone...