Updates. Why?
It sometimes seems these days that everything you touch needs to ‘update’ before it will do what you purchased it for. It is one of life’s endless irritations. So what is going on, why do we need them and are they important?
Modern software consists of thousands – maybe millions – of lines of computer code. The reputable suppliers take a huge amount of care to try to get this code as fault-free as possible. But to get the system 100% perfect would be (even assuming such a thing is possible) so time consuming that the product might never make it to the shelf. It’s generally accepted that there will be imperfections hidden in there somewhere.
We also have to accept that technology develops over time – and this might require changes to the software in you PC.
For these (And other) reasons software suppliers create & release ‘updates’ or ‘patches’.
We can therefore group the drivers for these updates as:
- Fixing faults in the software code.
- Desire to add features.
- Updates to meet more recent standards
- Remediate security flaws discovered by researchers (or scammers!)
How?
Responsible software companies will support their software for a specified time after release. During that time they will research problems & create solutions. These solutions will normally be in the form of ‘patches’ that are download from the Internet and applied in the relevant place. Hence you will hear the expression ‘fully patched’ to indicate that the software in question has been fully updated with these remedials.
Out of support.
Once the end of the specified support period is reached the company will cease these efforts. This is often called ‘end of life’. The expectation is that the user will UPGRADE to a new version of the software, which will have its own support period off into the future. The catch is, of course, that getting a new version often costs money. The risk of NOT doing so is that, should any flaws remain in the system at the end of the support period, you are vulnerable to whatever effects those flaws allow. Which, in the worst case, may be to allow miscreants to access and exploit your system.
Should I?
That depends on usage.
Businesses should not, as a rule, continue to run ‘end of life’ systems. Especially if your system holds sensitive data of any sort. It puts that data at preventable risk. It might well invalidate your ‘cyber insurance’. It will be looked on askance by regulatory bodies like The Law Society & The Financial Conduct Authority.
Private users are no less at risk, but are not driven by the same imperatives that business users are. Additionally they are less of a target. So running your system a couple of years beyond it’s end-of-life date is probably a risk they are willing to run.
Why tell us know?
The driver behind this article being written now is the imminent demise of Windows 10. Microsoft will end support in October 2025. From that point on they will only support Windows 11. They announced this is the summer giving users – particularly businesses – 18 months to migrate their fleets onto Windows 11.
As a professional support company we strongly recommend you look into this in a rigorous manner, the sooner the better. Please don’t leave it until the last minute when (a) it’ll be a terrible rush (b) your IT support staff will be on holiday (c) hardware will be in short supply as everybody rushes to replace their kit at the same time (d) prices will be inflated due to the scarcity (e) all your systems will be being replaced together, so productivity will plummet. You’ve got 12 months, migrate 10% of your systems every month & spread the pain!