Currently are there any updates that we should stay away from or is it ok to install everything that is listed under windows update?
Download anything you want. What are your concerns? There are no activation programs running in the background with a hardmod..
I once seen a list of updates to stay away from but I guess that was for anyone using a softmod. Anyways won't MS distinguish people downloading updates with a hardmod? For example, I have the ASUS SLIC and Vista x64. Now ASUS to my knowledge doesn't sell notebooks with the x64 operating system. Maybe they do, I don't know. Now MS could be a little suspicious if they see people updating Vista x64 on a OEM notebook. What do you think?
No. I think they have better things to do. You can install the 64 bit on any 64bit machine retail. As long as it is activated, and the updates do not find an activation program, they wont care. They probably dont monitor the softmods, the updates take care of those.. With MS cutting jobs, less techs for spot audits also...