CyberLogic Blog

Many people find the process of applying software updates to be highly annoying and disruptive. This frustration is understandable, as a poorly managed computer network will often require users to approve updates and patches manually – and in such cases, the software updates are typically applied during the work day. That means that the updates are downloaded and applied while the computer is in use. Of course, an effective IT Support company will take care of all of this for you!

The process of applying software updates can consume a fair amount of bandwidth as well as slowing down the computer while the update is applied. To add to the user’s frustration, the computer often requires a reboot once the updates have been applied. Needless to say, applying software updates during the workday severely impacts on employee productivity and can cause a lot of frustration! So with this in mind, many users will question the importance of these irritating updates.

The primary reasons why software updates are released are as follows:

Bug fixes – Not all code is perfect. Once a piece of software has been tested by the vendor in question, it is released into the public domain. Problems or bugs are then reported back to the vendors who rewrite bits of the application to resolve those problems. These are then released for download and are called bug fixes. They are important to ensure stable systems.

Security vulnerabilities – Security is a complex topic. In a nutshell, there are people out there who focus on finding security vulnerabilities in software. Vendors will rewrite pieces of code to close any security holes that are brought to their attention. It of paramount importance to ensure that security updates are applied to all software.

Product enhancements – Apart from fixing errors in code and addressing security vulnerabilities, some software updates also include enhancements which may add extra functionality or simply make a specific application run more efficiently.

Besides the afore-mentioned reasons to keep your computer up to date, another important reason is prevent what is known as Software rot. Software rot, (also known as software decay, code decay or software erosion) is a phenomenon whereby a piece of software that is left unchanged will eventually succumb to a loss of functionality or compatibility due to changes in the environment in which is resides.

While the best-known software updates are Microsoft’s Windows updates, all software is affected by the above mentioned phenomena and should be kept up to date at all times. Even the code that is running on your cellular phone should be updated whenever new updates are released. Other products which require frequent updates include anti-virus products, the various Adobe products, Apple products (as any iTunes user will know!) and so on.

Despite what many people believe, even the Apple’s MacOS family of operating systems do require frequent updates. In the past, many Apple users would proudly say that their systems didn’t need updates but in the last few years that has changed completely; the growing popularity of the Apple products has increased their target profile and as a result, hackers are focusing more and more attention on finding and exploiting vulnerabilities in the MacOS operating systems. Those vulnerabilities are addressed by frequent code updates from Apple.

Of course, on an effectively managed computer network, all of these updates should be performed after hours and without any user intervention whatsoever. Speak to your IT support company for advice on how to manage your software updates.