Case by case, though Microsoft has NO respect whatsoever for its users | Oct 14, 2018 |
There are different trends on this matter.
A special case is antivirus software. Of course, there is no point in locking the stable after the horse is gone, so updating antivirus, firewall, and whatever other security features is indeed a priority. AVG used to be Microsoft-like (see below), but after I - and possibly a huge worldwide crowd - complained insistently and harshly, they became more careful. Their updates no longer ... See more There are different trends on this matter.
A special case is antivirus software. Of course, there is no point in locking the stable after the horse is gone, so updating antivirus, firewall, and whatever other security features is indeed a priority. AVG used to be Microsoft-like (see below), but after I - and possibly a huge worldwide crowd - complained insistently and harshly, they became more careful. Their updates no longer hijack the entire computer unexpectedly, and pursuant to Murphy's Law, at the worst possible time. For a considerable while, they usually occur unobtrusively in the background, respectfully leaving me all the bandwidth I need. When it needs a reboot, AVG lets me postpone it on my choice.
IMHO the best practice is the one adopted by AVS4YOU in their suite. One of the programs in there will check all the others, advise you on which ones have been superseded, and will allow you to select those you want updated immediately, which it will download and install unobtrusively in the background. Running one of its programs will not pop up a message that there is a new version, so no time is wasted checking, unless you run the updater.
A good practice is adopted by programs like Infix and Any Video Converter, among others. As you open them, a message will pop up advising on an update, giving you options: a) update now; b) update later (either when running it again or via the menu option); and c) ignore/dismiss. While Infix will give you a link to download and run the update installer, AVC will do it seamlessly without shutting down the program; not a major difference.
An average practice is adopted, among others, by WordFast (Classic - no idea about Pro, gave up on it years ago). You have to check your current version, and write it down. Then log in to their web site, check for the latest one, and compare. If it's later than yours, you can download and install it.
The most despicable practice has been adopted by Microsoft in Windows 10. They take it for granted that all users are merely online gamers who have nothing worthier to do. Before I go into that, I have to describe my m.o.
My desktop computer is old, but still amazingly fast, as determined by various hardware checks and assessments available online. So I use the old Windows XP most of the time; it's solid, stable, reliable and extremely efficient. I tried Vista, Win 7, 8, 8.1, and 10 - didn't like any of them, they are all slower and less efficient than Win XP, which BTW was set to advise me on the available updates, and let me choose which and when I wanted to install. Now there aren't updates any more, and yet it is stable as a rock. I boot it from the default 120 GB SSD.
I keep all my data on a separate internal 160 GB HDD, and backup on an external 500 GB HDD.
A few - just three - things I do are no longer compatible with Windows XP. One is my web site development tool, WebSiteX5. The other is my bank's (Itau) online banking app; according to their IT folks, Microsoft twisted their arm to make it incompatible with Win XP, where it ran much faster and smoother. The last one is Netflix, which doesn't work so well on Windows XP, as it came up after XP had been buried.
So I can alternatively boot Windows 10 from a 240 GB SSD, whenever I need it. As I said, my computer is fast, so it takes less than half a minute to shut down one version of Windows and boot the other, unless... Windows 10 decides to play its pranks on me, either in shutting down or opening up.
Some Windows 10 updates are definitely hazardous to your computer's health. These are labeled as Builders' some season (Spring? Autumn?) update - plenty about it on Google. One of them wrecked a HDD beyond "soft" repair. SanDisk is a reliable company, they checked and replaced it in the three-year warranty, though I had been using it with Win 10 for 2+ years. This confirms that the "season" update was what spoiled it.
I recently had Windows 10 crashing, and it was unable to self-repair after several attempts. So I reinstalled it completely yesterday. Fortunately, the SSD was spared this time, so it worked. I carefully disabled all possible interaction options with Microsoft (i.e. denying them the default full disclosure to my e-life), though I don't think they'll accept that merely by my setup options; they probably keep snooping anyway. I was careful to disable automatic updates, choosing to be notified when there are any, nothing else.
To no avail... Last night I watched a movie on Netflix (on Win 10), and it was somewhat jittery, in spite of my 60 MBPS connection, and no other devices sharing it at that time. I checked on the Win 10 notifications, and it said... "We are improving your Windows experience", IOW downloading unrequested, unwanted updates!
This morning, when I turned on my computer (booting Win XP), as all disks were connected during that Win 10 update, it got into the endless CHKDSK cycle on all three disks, which I had to halt manually. I'm on XP right now, but prepared to have an unpleasant surprise when I shift to Win 10, as Microsoft has stealthily "improved" my Windows experience.
My take is that between XP and Vista Microsoft lost/got rid of all the good programmers they had, and that ever since amateurs have been building some patchwork that needs patches and fixes every other day. Regardless of their users' wishes, they force these updates down their throats, as the general stance is that these people exist merely to keep their patchy OS up-to-date.
If I were younger, and hadn't so much (money AND time to learn) invested in software, I'd probably have changed to Macintosh years ago.
My hope is that NO software company considers Microsoft as a role model, but as a necessary evil instead.
[Edited at 2018-10-14 19:40 GMT] ▲ Collapse | |