WyzGuys Tech Talk

I recent survey by several leading software manufactures found that only 40% of users accepted alerts requesting them to download an install an upgrade, update, or security patch, even when the updates are free of charge.  The reasons given most often were:

• The end users didn’t know if the alert was valid or not, were concerned the alert was fraudulent, and that they risked downloading malware or some else as bad.
• There was no perceived or explained benefit to the end user, so they figured there was no point in downloading the update.
• They were expecting the upgrade to take a long time and be an inconvenience or a hassle.
• There were no reasons given for the updates, so they did not understand if the updates were important or not.

We tell our clients to be suspicious about downloading anything unexpected, so it is not too surprising to see this figure.  I do field a lot of calls and emails from clients asking me if Java or Adobe updates are ok to run, and once in a while I get questions about Windows Updates.  The way to know, when you are asked, is at your fingertips.  Simply using Google to search for the update in question will tell you if it is safe or not, and this is our recommended solution any time you get a pop-up windows, software message window, or error message that you don’t understand – just look in Google and see what you find.