On rare occasions, an update will introduce bugs or incompatibilities. It monitors and alerts you when new versions of your installed programs become available. VersionTracker Pro makes keeping your software up-to-date easy. A membership with either site ($50 per year for VersionTracker, or $40 per year for MacUpdate) buys you regular e-mail alerts about updated programs, as well as software that tracks updates for the programs installed on your Mac and even downloads the updates for you (see “Track New Versions”). , that maintains a free, up-to-date list of software updates. You can also find out about updates at companies’ Web sites, but if you have lots of third-party programs that don’t check automatically, a better approach is to take advantage of a site, such as You’ll often find this feature in a program’s preferences window (typically accessed through the program name: Preferences menu item). Keep Other Software Current Many third-party programs-Microsoft Office, for example-have a similar feature that automatically checks for new versions and lets you know you when one is available. Software Update can check daily, weekly, or monthly and, if you like, automatically download any updates. Alternatively, tell Software Update to check for updates automatically: Open the Software Update preference pane, click on the Scheduled Check tab, and select the Check For Updates option. If it is, you can choose to install those updates right then and there. Choose Software Update from the Apple menu, and this built-in utility will launch and then check Apple’s servers to see whether any new Apple software is available. Schedule Apple Updates Keeping OS X and other Apple software up-to-date is easy. (Note that updates that provide bug fixes are often free larger updates that provide significant new features may require purchase.) In general, you want to make sure you’re running the latest versions of all your software. Why suffer from bugs that have already been fixed or security issues that have already been patched? Software vendors regularly release product updates that contain new features or quash problems and incompatibilities. (If you use Time Machine, it will take care of scheduling backups for you.) Keep software up to date How Often How much work can you afford to lose? An hour’s worth? A day’s? Back up accordingly. “Easy Mac Backups” for help developing a backup plan.

For more information about how and why you might combine Time Machine with other backup methods, see

Computer maintenance for mac