If the OP is talking about Vista and not exagerating about being a daily occurrence, there’s something not right there.
In the past month there were updates on:
the 12th
the 10th
the 9th
the 6th
the 3rd
the 2nd
march 27th
march 25th
march 21st
march 19th
march 14th
It’s more like 1 day in 3, and the vast majority (about 90%) of the updates are to Windows Defender, which as far as I know is optional. In fact only the 9th had security updates at all.
I think of this this Family Guy scene every time I have to download (which is frequently).
What’s particularly annoying to me is that I use my work computer several hours each day, often to download documents and other materials from the Internet (work related), and I get an “update needed” message from MS at least once or twice a month. While this doesn’t sound like such a hassle, only God and one person have the ability to authorize any type of download due to a Death Star security clearance and meanwhile I can’t get whatever file I’m trying to import. (This is particularly annoying is that some people at work have Office 2007 and others are still on 2003.)
I proudly still have XP and hope to hold onto it as long as possible…but the updates are mostly for “new security update” and they come in batches of four and five, with the occasional Windows Defender updates thrown in and a few other little tidbits.
I have it set up so I have to give the “OK” to download, which is something I only do when I get too annoyed at the little pop up reminders.
I have nothing inherently against updates, I just wish they had a special feature to let me get them once a month unless there is some wild-ass spam virus going on - but my guess is that these updates are so esoteric that only .001% of major banks and government databases should even be mildly concerned. I hardly think anybody is eagerly hacking computers to get at my Speech class quiz hand-outs that I store on my hard-drive.
I’ve disabled automatic updates completely and, instead, use Autopatcher to keep my PCs up to date. It’s an excellent utility that allows you to apply all patches and security updates offline through a handy menu-based interface.
There was a bit of a controversy over the program last fall because it was re-distributing windows updates (a violation of MS’s terms of use), but the new version batch downloads updates from MS and saves them to your hard drive until you’re ready to run the Autopatcher utility. Best of all, you can burn the patches to CD and use it to update other computers without having to re-download. It’s a great time and bandwidth saver if you have multiple computers.
I deal with security updates for a company and I can tell you that Microsoft releases on average ten of those a month for all versions of Windows and Office. Security updates are done on the second Tuesday of every month.
That’s the theory.
In practice things get messy. There’s inevitably problems with some of those updates and so new versions of the updates are released. I’ve dealt with updates that went back to Microsoft a dozen times before it was done. Ninety percent of the time this is invisible to home users but when you’re dealing with two hundred thousand windows PC’s you can find a lot of interesting problems. In addition Microsoft sometimes has a reaction to a security problem that is running wild and they release a security update on another day. Inevitably these have to go back a lot.
I checked my system and verified that I do have it set for automatic downloads with updates to be installed on Tuesdays at 3am, which would explain why I never see them.
I did notice one thing; I found an update history that showed a security update has been downloaded several times but each time installation was attempted it failed. I tried to manually install it and got an error message which was not listed on the error messages on the Microsoft website. Now I’m wondering if there’s a problem with my system.
That happened on my home machine (the .NETv3 Service Pack wouldn’t install until I did a repair on the base .NETv3 installation).
It doesn’t require it. You can uncheck the boxes and it will still work - it will just prompt you to download iTunes (and now, Safari) every. single. time. there is a QuickTime update. Which is all the time, apparently. And there’s no way to disable being nagged about iTunes and still get Quicktime updates.
How the Apple zealots can excuse this behavior, I’ll never know. Apple is just as obnoxious as Microsoft.
Then there is PC-illin. Which tells me I need updates, then when I follow the link to Microsoft, it tells me I don’t need updates.
So everyday I go through this.
PC-illin: OMG! OMG! You had better fucking update your computer or your dick will fall off!
Microsoft: No updates available for your computer.
And it works the other way around, too. If you have to install a new version of iTunes, Apple downloads and installs the latest version of QuickTime; then to add insult to injury, it arrogantly assumes that you want QuickTime to be your default media player without even asking you first!!
I absolutely hate QuickTunes as a media player; everything it shows is in a teeny-tiny little window and you can hardly see what’s playing.
To me at least, changing my settings/preferences without asking first is virus-like behavior, and I’m astonished that Apple thinks its OK.
Isn’t the bundling of software one of the reasons for all that railing against microsoft? I seem to recall Apple Fanatics (one of the most annoying religions I’ve ever encountered) decrying the evils of bundling software, and yet Apple has the single most annoying implementation of that that I’ve ever experienced.
The biggest problem these days is the number of obscure but dangerous remote exploits–Joe Malware doesn’t want what’s on your computer, he wants your processing time and network connection to use as a tool to swamp a much larger and more important system somewhere else.
I’m with some of the other users in the thread–Vista here, I have not had many security updates that required a reboot at all, maybe one in the last two or so weeks that I remember. I can personally handle once a week.
Haven’t been anything close to a zealot in years, but…
I have automatic updating turned off on my PowerBook, and as a result, the only app that ever pesters me to any degree about updates is Firefox. I don’t use Safari much, nor QuickTime nor iTunes, but every time I do, I have no problems with it. Can’t say I remember seeing one app’s update try to piggyback itself with another, nor had a problem with a checked box being ignored the way you describe. Never had a problem with Apple software changing my preferences or file associations.
Maybe it’s confirmation bias, but it seems most complaints I’ve read here about Apple software are made by Windows users. I’m not saying their complaints are unjustified-- quite the opposite. Apple software seems downright shitty on Windows. But I’m just a little amused, considering how crappy some Microsoft titles have been on the Mac (Word 6 and IE5 come to mind). Some days, I am tempted to say both companies deliberately try to make the user experience on the other platform as annoying as they can, just because they can.
Anybody else lose mouse and keyboard functionality on their Vista machine this past weekend? I’ve read a couple instances on other tech forums, and I’ve yet to find a solution. The latest “I’m a Mac, I’m a PC” has it dead on with the girl throwing a fit at the gong. And I was a fan of Vista. Fucking MS.
Here is how to stop Safari installation notifications:
http://cybernetnews.com/2008/04/07/hide-the-safari-update-notification-in-windows/
Nope. But every time there’s an actual security update, my keyboard forgets the settings for the play, pause, prev and next buttons that are used for music players. Every. goddamn. time.
The roblem with “Ignore Selected Updates” is that it only ignores that particular version. When the software upgrades to a new version, that, according to Apple, doesn’t count under the Ignore rule you set, it’s all new, and therefore still comes up asking to be installed. Plus, when you do select that Ignore option, it comes back with “Installed everything requested. Except that one you told us not to. But we can still install it if you want. Just click this button.”
Apple doesn’t understand what the word “Ignore” means.