I do a lot of presentations, and I'm on the Windows Insiders Fast Ring, meaning I get a new build about weekly, hence a lot more Windows Updates. I check for an

I do a lot of presentations, and I'm on the Windows Insiders Fast Ring, meaning I get a new build about weekly, hence a lot more Windows Updates. I check for and install updates as part of my preparations before presenting. I've been doing this for years, on every operating system I present on (yay xcode updates over hotel wifi!). I've never had a problem with unexpected OS updates, because I run them explicitly. I do the same for frameworks and IDEs I'll be demonstrating. I'm surprised someone doing a presentation wouldn't make sure their software was up to date before doing a presentation, honestly. Not just because it makes sure you know the state of your software stack, but because you'll know if - for whatever reason - your demonstrations don't work or work differently on the latest software release. End to end tech checks (including your software stack) is just part of respecting your audience. I think some people run into surprise software updates because they do demonstrations on a virtual machine. I don't think that's a good idea, but if you're going to present on VM images, it's just good practice to test out your environment before you present on it. Note: I'm not making any statement here about how I think software updates should be installed or how Windows works. I've blogged about controlling Windows Updates over the years, here's a post from a decade ago: https://weblogs.asp.net/jongalloway/438009 https://weblogs.asp.net/jongalloway/438009. This comment is about how I make sure, as a developer and presenter, that software updates don't affect my presentations. Disclaimer: Microsoft employee, Nazgûl