From PCs to Macs to smart devices, there seems to be a never-ending stream of updates flowing toward you. Windows Updates, Mac OS updates, iPhone updates, iPad updates, Android updates, Adobe updates, iTunes updates, Apple TV updates, Microsoft Office updates, Google Chrome updates, Firefox updates; it never stops! Can’t you just ignore all these distractions???
The answer is NO. These updates typically are closing security holes, fixing software bugs, or providing new functionality. Unfortunately, they sometimes also introduce new security holes, introduce new bugs, or eliminate functionality. This is the unavoidable cost of making changes, but the cost is still worth it, particularly when closing security holes.
The approach that Microsoft and Apple used to take with their operating systems was to make a group of updates available to you at various times, categorized by criticality. You could then choose to install some or all at a time of your choosing (assuming the right options were selected). With Microsoft’s Windows 10, these updates have become so critical that Microsoft has taken away your ability to select which updates to install. You can defer certain updates, but ultimately they will be automatically installed. There is much debate on whether this is a good idea or not, but it is what it is.
There are some hidden costs with all these updates, particularly when upgrading to a major release of a new operating system version (e.g., moving from Windows 7 to Windows 10 or from Mac Yosemite to macOS Sierra.) That cost relates to older applications or devices that worked on the older operating system, but may not work on the newest version. One of my customers recently experienced this when updating their Windows 10 operating system to Microsoft’s Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Their version of Quickbooks 2011 that was working on Windows 10 stopped working after the Anniversary Update. Intuit no longer supports Quickbooks 2011, so they were forced to purchase the latest version of Quickbooks (an expense of several hundred dollars per user). They asked why they couldn’t go back to their previous version of Windows and stay there, but that really is an untenable solution (and impossible on Windows 10) due to the inherent security risk of not staying current.
Although in general one should always install updates from reputable companies (don’t get tricked into installing a virus!), I continue to recommend waiting at least 6 months before moving to a major release, because brand new major releases need time for some update releases to resolve initial bugs, which tend to be more plentiful than with more mature software.
The answer is NO. These updates typically are closing security holes, fixing software bugs, or providing new functionality. Unfortunately, they sometimes also introduce new security holes, introduce new bugs, or eliminate functionality. This is the unavoidable cost of making changes, but the cost is still worth it, particularly when closing security holes.
The approach that Microsoft and Apple used to take with their operating systems was to make a group of updates available to you at various times, categorized by criticality. You could then choose to install some or all at a time of your choosing (assuming the right options were selected). With Microsoft’s Windows 10, these updates have become so critical that Microsoft has taken away your ability to select which updates to install. You can defer certain updates, but ultimately they will be automatically installed. There is much debate on whether this is a good idea or not, but it is what it is.
There are some hidden costs with all these updates, particularly when upgrading to a major release of a new operating system version (e.g., moving from Windows 7 to Windows 10 or from Mac Yosemite to macOS Sierra.) That cost relates to older applications or devices that worked on the older operating system, but may not work on the newest version. One of my customers recently experienced this when updating their Windows 10 operating system to Microsoft’s Windows 10 Anniversary Update. Their version of Quickbooks 2011 that was working on Windows 10 stopped working after the Anniversary Update. Intuit no longer supports Quickbooks 2011, so they were forced to purchase the latest version of Quickbooks (an expense of several hundred dollars per user). They asked why they couldn’t go back to their previous version of Windows and stay there, but that really is an untenable solution (and impossible on Windows 10) due to the inherent security risk of not staying current.
Although in general one should always install updates from reputable companies (don’t get tricked into installing a virus!), I continue to recommend waiting at least 6 months before moving to a major release, because brand new major releases need time for some update releases to resolve initial bugs, which tend to be more plentiful than with more mature software.
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