Most of us have used and loved Software Update–that little thing from Apple that premiered in OS 9 that tells us whenever our Apple software has an update available, and automatically does all the updating stuff for us.

Well, Software Update has acquired some new aspects in Leopard. For one thing, (although I have yet to see it,) apparently Software Update now checks for updated versions of printer drivers. Woop dee do. But another thing which I find sort of strange is that Apple has seemed to have slimmed down the application. Now while things are downloading and installing, you get this more compact window that tells you what’s going on now, but doesn’t let you see any of the other applications waiting to have things happen to them, like they used to.

However an additional aspect is that now, whenever you’re installing an update that requires a restart, Software Update will actually ask you to restart the computer BEFORE the installation proceeds, and right before the computer is about to shut off, THEN Software Update actually begins the installation, and then automatically restarts the computer. In Tiger and earlier, on the other hand, the update would take place in the background, and a restart wouldn’t be necessitated until after the install was done (and even then I could delay it until I was ready for the restart, and often did). Personally, I think this new setup is a bit more difficult to work around, and forces me to really have to interrupt my workflow more than before in order to do updates, making them less convenient. Nevertheless, Software Update still is handy and helps make sure you can be absolutely up-to-date (which has only backfired very rarely).

Feature Satisfaction Rating:

Be sure to check out the other articles in the Leopard Feature Presentation, occurring throughout the month of November here on Webmacster87.info.

Tags: applications, automatic, drivers, install, Leopard Feature Presentation, Mac OS X Leopard, printer, review, Software Update, update