A number of applications install their own updater utility, including the almost ubiquitous Adobe Acrobat Reader and the Oracle Java Runtime Environment. If linked-clone or instant-clone desktops are being used, and regular updates of the desktop master image are made, these updater utilities should be disabled to reduce the growth of the desktop OS disk. As for full-clone desktops, you may wish to leave these updaters enabled, unless the software will be updated by other methods.

The procedure used to disable or remove these components will vary based on the architecture of the individual application. The following are examples of how to disable the Adobe Acrobat Reader and the Java Runtime Environment application updaters. For other applications, consult with their vendors for instructions on how to control or otherwise disable similar features with their software packages.