Microsoft is finally fixing app updates on Windows – Computerworld

Will Windows application updates ever really be fixed?

While the new Windows Update orchestration platform seems like a big step forward, it won’t change everything overnight. Even when it is available to the wider world of Windows app developers, not everyone will plug into it immediately. Many applications may never use it at all — perhaps some app developers will prefer to do things their own way.

Does Google really want to abandon its own Chrome updater and embrace Microsoft’s built-in update experience, for example? Companies such as Google and Adobe have invested in their own updaters, which likely allow them to gather telemetry as well as handle everything in house. They’re probably not itching to abandon their proven solutions for a first-version Microsoft product. Why hand over critical infrastructure to Microsoft? At the very least, companies might wait and see for a while. And, if developer interest is low, Microsoft could axe it. However, at least those companies are already updating their own software.

Other applications (like WinRAR and 7-Zip) don’t have built-in updaters at all — although that’s a huge security concern. Will they rush to embrace a new updater? They don’t even deliver updates directly, so why take a risk? For some developers, updates represent a way to get additional page views and ad revenue from their websites.