Stop That Update – Use Update Freezer

What annoys you the most when your Windows computer first boots and you want to get to your work straightaway? For me, I find the popups of Adobe Reader and Adobe AIR appearing asking me to update the software is pretty annoying. I tried using my ZoneAlarm firewall to stop Adobe Reader updates.  It seemed as if the trick worked – but for a short duration. Very soon, Adobe Reader updates were back. And they appear almost every other day. So how do you stop automatic Adobe updates – and other like it? I downloaded Update Freezer.

Update Freezer is a simple application that runs on Windows XP and later versions. The main aim of the application is to help you stop certain applications from starting updates automatically on their own. Though Update Freezer supports very few programs, it supports all the essential programs that tend to irritate computer users with automatic updates.
Among the programs Update Freezer supports are:

1. Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat
2. Adobe Flash
3. Firefox
4. Google
5. Java
6. Skype and
7. Windows

Note that Update Freezer has two different processes for Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash. This is because you may want to keep the Flash updated while stopping Adobe Reader from presenting you with update dialog boxes.
For every program listed in Update Freezer, you will find two options: Enabled and Disabled. If you click Disabled, the program updates for that programs are blocked by Update Freezer. On the contrary, if you click on Enabled, the program will update itself normally.
For programs that are not installed on your computer, Update Freezer will show you N/A (Not Available). In my case, I have not installed Skype and Firefox. You can see in the above image that next to both Skype and Firefox, Update Freezer is displaying N/A.
For Windows Updates, you get some more options in addition to just Enabled and Disabled. The actual options you can see in Update Freezer for Windows Updates are – Not Set (Use Settings Based on Windows Update Center);  Disabled (Disable Windows Update); Notify Only (Equivalent to Notify before downloading); Download Only (Equivalent to Download and then Notify) and Automatic. It is recommended that you leave this setting to Automatic because disabling Windows Automatic Updates may make your computer vulnerable to problems.

Update Freezer download

In short, Update Freezer is a nice and simple application that helps you manage program updates by enabling and disabling them. You can download Update Freezer from here.  Remember that Update Freezer is free to download and use; it does not carry any type of adware. Next time anyone asks you how to stop automatic Flash updates you can refer them to Update Freezer.
Meanwhile, can you let us know which applications irritate you most by starting automatic updates every now and then?