Should you update your computer or not? For the average home user we would recommend updating the system as often as possible to make sure you are protected against known vulnerabilities, however, for the business user their work computer presents a more challenging decision because the uptime of the system is crucial to the business’ daily operations. When updating any piece of software, especially the operating system, one runs the risk of compromising the operating system, an installed aplication, or a driver. You may run a patch for the operating system (OS) which causes an important application not to function properly. One example of this was when Microsoft released Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows XP; although this was a Critical Update that addressed important vulnerabilities it caused significant issues for many applications. Many of these issues were not addressed until Microsoft released Service Pack 2 (SP2) months later. This was a minor nuisance for the average user but was a critical business issue for many organizations. The organizations that were managed by a knowledgeable IT staff did not suffer the same complications as those that were not.

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