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More Than Half of PC Applications Installed Worldwide Are Out-of-Date (helpnetsecurity.com)

Posted by msmash on from the security-woes dept.

Avast's PC Trends Report 2019 found [PDF] that users are making themselves vulnerable by not implementing security patches and keeping outdated versions of popular applications on their PCs. From a news report: The applications where updates are most frequently neglected include Adobe Shockwave (96%), VLC Media Player (94%) and Skype (94%). The report, which uses anonymized and aggregated data from 163 million devices across the globe, also found that Windows 10 is now installed on 40% of all PCs globally, which is fast approaching the 43% share held by Windows 7. However, 15% of all Windows 7 users and 9% of all Windows 10 users worldwide are running older and no longer supported versions of their product, for example, the Windows 7 Release to Manufacturing version from 2009 or the Windows 10 Spring Creators Update from early 2017.

3 of 151 comments (clear)

  1. Way too many by DarkRookie2 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Software now adays seems to want to update every 6 hours.
    This is not surprising and prolly the reason for stuff like this.
    People should make stuff that doesn't require that many updates.

    --
    http://progressquest.com/spoltog.php?name=Son+Of+Son+Of+DarkRookie
    1. Re:Way too many by Malc · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Updates this frequently seems to be an excuse for poorer quality software. Every update fixes problems with the last version and introduces a ton of new issues. The overall average quality of the software stays poor and doesn't incrementally improve. I think I preferred the old way of working where updates were just fixes, and once in a while I got an upgrade that actually felt worthwhile because the impact of all the new features normally out weighed any new issues introduced.

      If I've got something I'm happy with then I can wait; I don't need something new every 30s (or even every two weeks)

  2. I'd update more if... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 3, Interesting

    ... the updates did not add data collection. One application I am using requires me to install google analytics when I upgrade the application. So I stopped upgrading it. Then there is Windows 10, if I upgrade to Windows 10, I turn my PC into a Microsoft data collection machine. If you want to know a reason why some do not upgrade, ask the software providers who put egregious data collection into their upgrades.