Andy Chase

It's fashionable these days for software to go out to the internets and check to see if a new version of itself has been released. When a new version is available, the first thing you get upon opening the program is a supremely annoying popup window saying "A new version has been released! Would you like to visit our web site to download the latest version?" and some buttons: "Yes", "Not Now", and maybe a "Remind Me Later". Sometimes you'll see a "stop asking me" checkbox, which often doesn't do a blessed thing.

The problem is one of timing; when I open up whatever program it is I want to use, it's because I've made up my mind to perform some kind of task - and that task isn't to go to a web site, download an installer or disk image, browse to the file on my hard drive, uncompress it, run an installer, restart the program, read the annoying "What's new in version x.x" message, and then perform the task I wanted to do in the first place.

I like new version notification in concept, but in practice I find myself clicking the "Not Now" button 9 times out of 10. I would probably be much more receptive to the upgrade process if the program hit me with that message when I went to quit, after my task is complete.

Tagged:

• software
• hci