Updates Versus Upgrades

Non-technical people often assume that updates and upgrades are the same thing. They aren’t. An update is usually something you do online. There is nothing to buy at a store, no disk to insert in a disk drive. Updates are generally free, and often automatic (many programs scan for updates and offer them to you automatically). You don’t have to make an effort to seek those out and install them.

Updates for some programs may not be quite so automatic. But you can often find out if any updates are available right from the program’s Help menu. For example, in Microsoft Office 2010 programs, click the File tab and choose Help. On the right pane, click Check For Updates to search the web for any Microsoft Office-related updates.

Unlike updates, upgrades are usually not free. You have to purchase them and install them. For example, let’s say you have Microsoft Office 2007 installed on a computer. You want to get Office 2010 on that computer. In that case, you’d seek out an Office 2010 Upgrade Edition (which is cheaper than the regular edition). Then you’d install that upgrade edition right over your existing version. In other words, you wouldn’t uninstall (remove) your existing version first.