Why does checking for software updates often take so long?

5 pointsnick_2 comments

It seems like a lot of the desktop software I use (including the OS) takes on the order of 10 seconds to check if an update is available.

What is happening that takes longer than network round-trip plus (a generous) 10ms to check for a higher version number?

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You seem to be using windows, so i can only make guesses: Windows makes quite a few requests plus the system seems to be dynamic, meaning that clicking on the check for updates button may yield in an completly different list dendent only on microsofts whims. ms office has probably different calls to make and since windows also provides drivers via the infrastructure it could also check the drivers.

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