Software will often update itself over the Internet - IF YOU LET IT - so - how to choose

Why should I care about this? - stop reading if it wouldn't matter if your PC crashed

Allowing software to update itself CAN be beneficial to you BUT be very wary when the proportion of new code and features compared to that which is maintaining the stability and resilience of 'what works'! even reaches 10% and even lower than that if your PC is actually critical to some work or personal activity in your life.

See Self Updating Software for a brief history of where it comes from and where IT wants to BE! The reason that you SHOULD CARE is because over time this software will reduce your PC to an unresponsive, complex shipwreck where the 'crew' are visibily in battle with each other at the expense of your productivity and time.

So who are the companies that want to 'push' software onto your PC and how you should resist IF that is the correct approach for that vendor.

Some tricks that Software Vendors play with their prospects/customers

Software that 'pretends' to be a small download but ACTUALLY HUGE

Several companies now package their software such that the download size APPEARS to be very small but in fact what you have only downloaded the code which will prompt you for some basic details before dumping a pile of bloated software onto your PC. Example are Adobe, Yahoo and SOME MS products but I expect the trend to increase as companies realise that many people do not want their PC experience to be switched in emphasis and direction towards them.

Places that Software Vendors often try to 'acquire' your eyeballs

IF you are lucky you will get a choice of NOT TAKING various additional pieces of software that they want to 'GIVE' to you. They are usually:

• Toolbars which appear at the top of your browser and
• Browser 'Add Ons' that can be even worse in that they can make changes to the actual pages that you want to see before you see them. They can also stop you visiting or even seeing the links to web sites that THEY DEEM to be 'bad for you'!

Where does software that automatically updates itself come from?

Some software companies at least allow you to limit their 'push' of software onto your PC to security and other critical updates - Microsoft is (for once?) in prime position but perhaps only because of either antitrust laws or customer feedback!

Many software vendors get a foothold (a.k.a. beachhead!?) on your PC by offering something useful for free and then try to grow their prescence until they get you into a position where you are starting to pay them - either hard cash or advertising or by a miriad of ways which have yet to be discovered because at the end of the day they usually want to be rewarded for their efforts even if all of the latter are not always having your best interests at heart.

Many software vendors want to control the software that runs on your PC - some are actually criminals, many are not far from it and the few that are left are only constrained from taking over your PC by Monopoly Laws around the world.

Ignoring the criminals who use any and all malware to control your PC the biggest problem for end-users is knowing who they can trust to do what - not just from a perspective of ethical behaviour but what the supplier sees as their duty to users. Many companies who have aims which are generally to 'improve the web experience' of their users totally disregard the legitimate desire of many of their users who actually want to be on the safe but often trailing rather than the bleeding edge of technology.

Because Microsoft is constrained by Monopoly laws they have to be very careful about what software they 'push' onto your PC. Their whole software management and update system is forced to respect that users can choose only to have updates automatically applied which are defined as being 'Security' or 'Critical' to the running of their PC. This means that the BASE MS operating systems and components are USUALLY free from major injections of new code and functionality. As an example of where that breaks down is the "Windows Live Messenger" product which regularly refuses to run if you are on an old release - that is why that software is totally unacceptable on any PC which needs to be resilient and reliable.

In a similar manner - Adobe has two desktop products which are constantly requesting that they be updated and once you have gotten onto their 'technology treadmill' it can be very difficult to know when it is safe to 'get off' and because they have no constraints in law they tend to push users onto ever-increasingly recent software with the inherent risks that brings.

Firstly you should click on the normal Windows Start button (or just press the 'Windows Logo Key' to the bottom left of your keyboard) and then click on 'Control Panel', which is usually half way up the right hand column. Then click on 'Security Centre'

This is the security centre of XP from Start -> Control Panel -> Security Centre.

This dialogue is not simple because the place that you click upon to make changes is where it says 'Security Centre' at the BOTTOM of the page as opposed to all of the status messages with similar text and the illusion of clickable buttons that are prolific above the actual link to click.

If you are on Broadband there is little downside in leaving the updates on the MS web site until you are ready to review, download and install them typically within a 10-15 minutes period. Bear in mind that updates often require a restart to become effective so you MAY wish to choose a time and day when that is convenient and start the download 20-30 minutes before you are ready to restart.

A 'reasonable' compromise between keeping up-to-date and avoiding the very occassional problem caused by updates is to take the 'Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them' option. With THIS option you should wait until the update has had a chance to be retrospectively 'nuked' by Microsoft if it is indeed a 'bad' one. So waiting until the Thursday morning after an update would be a good time to allow your PC to install the update and remember that it is likely to want the PC to be restarted anyway.

If you are on dial-up then you would benefit from the downloading that can be done whilst you are generally surfing, especially as it happens 'in the background' without much disruption. The only downside is that your choice about installing them is typically 'all or nothing' whereas you get a choice with the option described above and below.

When there are updates to download you will be prompted by Windows - usually by a 'balloon' notification in the icon area in the far bottom-right of your monitor. You will then see the window to the left.

This window cannot be made to default to the 'Custom' setting so you have to remember to select that every time you get this window.

This window allows you to be selective about the updates that you download and gives you the control to avoid a bad update as long as you are aware that there is one and you know which of them to deselect.

Obviously you click on 'Install' when you are happy that the (ticked) list is what you want.

Please note that you fully SHOULD CLOSE DOWN your PC at the VERY LEAST EVERY MONTH** and my normal recommendation is every week(end).

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