upgrading for the sake of upgrading

[kityuser]

simple question. After years of IT experience I now only really update software if theres a new feature I need or a bug fix. Infact at work (mostly EDA CAD software) we ONLY upgrade if its justified and its a proper chore!

so when those latest windoz updates appear, or service packs, do people rush to update or look at the release notes first to justify........
?
As I age I've also started to adopt this approach in other forms (tools cars etc)


lost count of the number of times I've had a wasted evening after an unjustified software update thats then broken my comp....

:twisted:

Steve

 

[RogerS]

Ah...the £64,000 question...especially if you're responsible for 100's of computers in a corporate environment.

Thing is, you can only get away with it for so long. These days if you use the web in its' widest sense then you need all sorts of plug-ins, java stuff, flash stuff, silverlight stuff etc and they all interact to some extent with each other. So sooner or later you do have to update something but then find that that something needs the latest version of something else which needs the latest version of ....you get my drift.

As far as our own home systems are concerned then I update the Security Updates and OS updates from Apple as usually they are for the better and often there is a system performance improvement. And I have to confess to being an early adopter (at least as far as my own G4 is concerned). Rarely have I had any problems although there was a glitch with Flash not so long ago but [smug mode] as I was the first person in the world (or so it would seem from the Apple forums) to have seen this nugget coming then I was up and running in minutes. [/smug mode]

My wife's is Intel iMac and I usually wait for the dust to settle before updating hers!

My G4 is currently nagging me to update my Airport software which is a tad annoying since I don't have an Airport installed.

I do have an old PC laptop and had occasion to fire it up recently. I left it doing its' various updates for a couple of hours while I went shopping and then started using it :wink:

 

[yo_chuci]

windows updates i always wait at least a couple of weeks...
then i get the number of the update (from update screen) and then google it
and see if it fixes or creates more probs... there are always posts somewhere saying if it worked or not...
flash java etc are all normally ok, and ofcourse security one's are important...
funny thing as i turned on work laptop this morn and it had a
firefox update, then after that some of the add-ons updated then windows did an update...
work laptop so if it goes wrong it goes back so care less about it making mistakes...

 

[wizer]

in terms of windows updates I keep my pc's up-to-date. Have the update download as soon as it's available. The only thing that annoys me is when the update forces a reboot. I dont like rebooting! I can't remember ever having a windows update that broke something. Perhaps I'm lucky.

However, my missus never installs updates and, although her laptop makes me break out in a sweat to think about how 'unkempt' it is, it's never failed and she rarely complains.

So I think you're right. I'm just too efficient for my own good.

 

[RogerS]

wizer...hope your missus keeps her anti-virus stuff etc up-to-date, though.

 

[Peter T]

My desktop wants me to install XP service pack 3.

So far I've resisted since I've heard some bad things about it.

Maybe I'll google it when I can be bothered to see what the latest issues are.

 

[wizer]

Honestly, I've been using SP3 since it first became available on all my machines and never had a single problem.

 

[cambournepete]

Having spent far too much time this year fixing computers infected by conficker due to waiting for the corporate update policy to be agreed and implemented i try to keep the office pcs and servers up to date.
None of the updates have yet caused problems, even with the obscure software we use...
I'd heard SP3 caused problems, but it seems fine on my home pc and all the work ones i've installed it on.

 

[TrimTheKing]

Honestly, I've been using SP3 since it first became available on all my machines and never had a single problem.

I'm the same wizer. I read all the posts on here from people shouting that 'another M$ update that has broken my machine', I can honestly say, hand on heart, that I have never experienced this!

Maybe it comes from working in IT and being conscious of what and how I install on my machine. Too many times do I see people just accepting all the default settings for apps on installation and these for me are the biggest culprits. I have wasted more time on my mother in laws' computer removing Google toolbars, Yahoo toolbars and Lord only know what other cr@p that she just didn't understand so just blindly clicks her way through.

Either that or I'm very lucky, but I don't think so...

To quote someone whose name I can't remember, 99% of computer errors lie somewhere between the keyboard and the chair! :lol:

Cheers

Mark

 

[wizer]

removing Google toolbars, Yahoo toolbars and Lord only know what other cr@p

*shiver* :twisted:

 

[Peter T]

So far so good!

Everything seems to still work post SP3.