Installing new software
Describe the potential risks of installing
or upgrading software
Loss of service
When installing or upgrading software a users system must
have a stable internet connection whilst the update is taking place, if the
connection Is unstable and keeps disconnecting some files from the update may
not be installed correctly, possibly corrupting some files and showing many
errors on screen for example when the user turns the system on they may get the
“Blue screen of death” this is triggered by a poorly written device drivers or
malfunctioning hardware such as memory.
Incompatibility
Everything in a system must be compatible with each other or
else the system will not work, this is the same case for upgrading or
installing a new software. If anything in the system hardware or software is incompatible
with the software you are attempting to install then files could be missed out,
incomplete downloads can occur or the system will refuse to update. To avoid
this, research what the upgrade contains and check to so if any hardware or
software currently on your system and either uninstall them from your system or
check to see if they can be upgraded to support the new OS upgrade you are
trying to install to prevent this the user would check websites to see if there
are any common problems with any of the hardware or software.
Slow machine (Hanging)
The risks of a slow machine (Hanging) the time it takes for
things to happen, the main problem of a hanging computer is the user as they
could get frustrated and click things multiple times downloading the same thing
over and over again or the user can get fed up of waiting and close down the
installation therefore having uninstalled or half installed files that take up
a huge amount of space, slowing the users pc down even more.
Describe how risks can be minimised
Backups
To minimize the chance of harming your system or corrupting
any files the user should create a backup. A back up is a duplicate of a file
or multiple files stored on another storage device this means if something
happens whilst the system is updating then you have a duplicate of all the
files on your system that have not become corrupted, this allows the user to
locate and replace the corrupted files with the duplicate. There’s is also
something called an image grab this is duplicates and saves everything, in
saves all of the users files and all the operating system, this is a much
slower process but it is useful if the operating system is lost or corrupted.
Backups should be taken regularly for example daily weekly and many different
typed of backups should be used.
Timing of installation
The time when you install new software can be a factor too.
Users sometimes start installations in the afternoon for example 6:00pm this is
the time on average most people are using the internet, this could link to the
loss of service as too many devices are using the internet this could affect
the download as files may not install correctly or even not at all it is best
the start and installation late at night as there are less people online using
internet therefore speeding up the download and installing all the necessary
components fully. For example, a college would begin an update at about 6:00pm
as no staff or students will be using the system at that time.
Setting system restore points
Throughout your systems lifetime it will select key points
in the past which it can be restored to, this can also be done manually which
means a restore point can be selected before a major update takes place. A
restore point is where the system can revert back to a certain period in time, deleting
files after the restore point and
retrieving deleted files before the restore, this is good because if a major
fault occurs the system can be restored before the installation takes place so
the user can avoid that update or try again correctly. Users can use this if
any major problems occur with the system.
Checking windows forums
Users can check the windows forums to see what the update
contains and what people think about the update, users can add comments to tell
others if the upgrade should be avoided for now because it is broken or praised
because it fixed most of the problems that occurred with the other operating
system it the forums can also tell the user what is required for the update to
work at its full potential or just to install correctly, this may mean the user
needs to get more RAM, hard drive space or in some cases an entire new system.
