It started as good practice, no touch auto update for your programs, however like other things in world it came with its own set of problem.
First virus definitions then windows plug the hole. Now every second program is running a service and eating my bandwidth.
I have on my machine updater programs for
* Adobe
* Apple iTunes + Quick Time
* Flash Player
* Google products (e.g. Picasa)
* McAfee
* And of course Windows (+ Office and other Microsoft products)
These are minimum a normal user is going to face. Everyday there is something or other.
Firefox again has very regular updates (and its addins), however Firefox updates are delivered only when you launch it.
I am not in favor of services and executable (some with 4-5 MB footprint) running constantly cluttering Task Manager processes delaying windows startup time. Updates should be checked only when program is launched or running.
Other idea is to have one windows service checking all program updates. While installing, the application can register itself with “Windows auto update” and windows auto update checks the availability as per user configuration. If Microsoft is not ready or not sure about how it can be done. There may a third part utility which may give this feature. All applications register to this utility and it manages all updates. This utility may come with your security programs (McAfee, Norton).
It may also throw in one download manager and let us specify the directory where we want updates to be downloaded.
Simple Complexities 