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Software will often update itself over the Internet - IF YOU LET IT - so - how to chooseWhy should I care about this? - stop reading if it wouldn't matter if your PC crashedAllowing 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/customersSoftware that 'pretends' to be a small download but ACTUALLY HUGESeveral 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 eyeballsIF 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:
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.
I hope the information above has been useful, let me know if not! Any Comments, suggestions or corrections to: Contact us please. This would be especially useful if the software environment you have is different to mine and the headings, text or prompts are different. Windows XP Remote Assistance now provides in-work training and assistance, as and when needed to more than a dozen customers What's HotApril'08 Keep Spammers out of your InBox - starting from 30 UKP p.a. including your own (UK) domain.Site Offers:< inc it=file txt=sitesof1.txtª>
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