It is important to update your computer software. New updates can expand and improve features and usability, but more importantly, they also contain bug fixes, performance improvements and other security fixes.
The bottom line is that you should always keep your software up to date. But how do you like that? Well, unfortunately, Windows doesn’t provide many automatic updates other than the updates it provides for your operating system, which we’ll talk about below.
For other software that you use, such as applications and games that you download to your computer, there is usually little support for automatic updates. Some software allows you to enable automatic updates, but for others, you will have to rely on third-party software update programs to accomplish this.
Whether you have purchased a new computer and are installing new programs on it, or have had your own for a while but noticed how much you hate manual updates, the tips below will help you determine how you can update your PC software. automatically.
Use Windows Update
Windows itself, the entire operating system and the tools built into it need to be updated as often as possible. Microsoft releases updates on a weekly basis, so this is not a problem: enable these updates to get new protection every week and sometimes new features.
Microsoft provides a tool, aptly named Windows Update, that ships with the OS to keep it up to date when needed.
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Note: Are you using Windows 10? Learn how to protect Windows 10 and get specific instructions for that OS.
Step 1. Open Windows Update. You can do this by searching for Windows Update through the Start Menu or Control Panel.
Step 2. Select the “Check for Updates” link.
Step 3. Select “Install Updates” to make sure your computer has the latest available updates.
Third-party software update
Updating individual applications is not as easy as updating the Windows operating system. You can always re-download your programs from time to time to make sure they are up to date, but this is tedious and often a waste of time as the developer may abandon some of your software and no updates are released.
Instead, you can install special programs that will update your other programs ! Yes, it sounds strange, but they exist and can be extremely useful. Some of the best freebies include IObit Software Updater, Patch My PC, and FileHippo App Manager
Another free software updater that only focuses on security updates is Thor CCleaner is a sample program that includes a software updater, but this feature is not free.
To use these programs, simply install them, and then configure a few settings to specify when and what to check. These apps are great for updating other software because most of them will notify you when a program needs an update, and some will even do the whole update for you.
However, automatic updaters do not catch everything for the simple reason that they cannot . There is a lot of software out there, and no update program can catalog all of them.
Some updaters can be purchased to support more programs than the free versions, but even then, you are bound to run into situations where a program (or two or ten) that you have on your computer is not supported by the software update tool.
Tip: different software updates will support different software. If you find that the one you are using does not update the automatically detected program that you want to support, try another updater. Feel free to run several at once to catch everything.
Another way to ensure that your third-party programs update automatically is to check if the program has an automatic update option in the settings. Some programs will check for updates but won’t install them for you, but others will check and install without any additional steps.
For example, if you go to Help About Google Chrome in the Chrome browser, it will check for available updates and then install them. This also happens automatically in Chrome, periodically.
Auto update games
Updating PC games is usually determined by game settings, as in the Chrome example above.
If you use Steam to download and play games, it has automatic updates built in. By default, every video game is updated when the developer sends an update to users, so you really don’t need to do anything to update your Steam games.
If the Steam game is not updating when updates are available, right-click the game in the LIBRARY section of the program and select Properties.
On the UPDATES tab, make sure one of the following options is selected: Always keep this game up to date, Update this game only at launch, or High priority: Always automatically update this game before others.
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