Updates (Uni Project - I need some info!)

[Edmond]

Hey everyone,

I'm doing a project at uni where I've to investigate 'Updates' (art school obvs).

I'm trying to just do my research on what it officially is first, then I've to find a perspective on it and work from there. I know the instant relation is technology/software updates - which I want to understand better.

I get that an update is new software for your pc/device/whatever, but how is the update communicated to the pc? is it the updates files (Drivers and so in) composed in to some kind of installation or is it coded to instruct the pc to download different files and remove ones etc.

If I'm not making any sense please let me know because to tell the truth I think I'm going mad. I've been googling 'who makes updates','how are updates communicated to a pc' and 'are updates coded to instruct a computer' lol. Hopefully some of you intelligent folk will be able to enlighten me.

Hope you're all well :)

[scottish]

It depends on the Software.

Most software will prompt the user telling them that there's a new update available and click a link to automatically start downloading the new version, or take them to a website where they can download the new version.

Most programs will communicate with a server somewhere in the world, and on that server there'll be code saying hey the latest version is 2.1.5 (not literally).

The software on your computer will check that server saying hey the latest version is 2.1.5 then look and say hey i'm only on version 2.1.4 then prompt you stating that there's an available update (to which you'd load a website or download within the software).

The updated files will typically extract the necessary files overwriting any that have changed so they're on the latest version and make any other changes.

[Edmond]

Thanks scottish :D