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If you are like me, you like to keep your computer updated, mainly to avoid security threats. On the Mac, there is an automatic mechanism for doing this called Software Update that works very well. So well in fact, that multi-taskers like me often fall victim to the temptation to let it go about it’s business in the background while we work on other things. Turns out that is a very bad idea.

In March, Unsanity.org posted this article about a nasty bug in the Software Update process that you need to be aware of if you work on a Mac. The short version is that if you launch certain applications while Software Update is ‘optimizing system performance’ you may cause certain important files to be erased. You heard me right. This may cause your system to be unable to boot. The moral of the story being: Don’t touch anything while Software Update is running. If you have time to read the details, check out the link above.

Even if you follow this advice though, jumping on an update too fast can sometimes break things—with negative consequences to your workflow. I’ll give you a good example of this in a future post…