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This article describes our routine policy for updates. In the event of a critical security vulnerability being announced, updates and reboots may be pushed more aggressively. The Information Security Office (ISO) policies require us to regularly apply security updates to all University-owned computers. Our goal is to make this process as unobtrusive as possible while balancing convenience with security.
You will need to occasionally restart your computer to apply these updates. Please regularly save your work to minimize the impact of this process.  

UPDATE?  Windows users are encouraged to leave their computers on overnight and over the weekend so that updates can apply automatically outside of business hours. If your computer doesn't receive updates during this time, you may be forced to reboot your computer during business hours on the last Tuesday of each month. 

Mac users will see an ENGR ITG a UT-branded popup instructing them to apply software updates. This popup will continue to appear until the computer is updated. During the first week after updates are available, the popup will appear once starting at 10am. On the second week after updates are available, the popup will appear multiple times daily.  During the first two weeks, you may postpone the update.  On the third week after updates are available, the popup will not go away. The popup will go away as soon as updates are applied. Mac users will not forced to reboot by this popup, however the updates may require a reboot after being installed.

Apple generally releases updates on a Monday or Tuesday.  ENGR ITG will set a deadline for updates to the following Tuesday at 4pm.

Once the deadline is set, the popup message will appear 4 times per day.   The popup will move itself to the foreground once a minute until you either click Postpone or Update Now.

Once the deadline is within 12 hours, you must click Acknowledge Required Update before you may click Postpone.

When the deadline is reached, Update Now will be clicked automatically and the software update installation will start.

Apple Silicon (M1, M2, M3) Macs may prompt for your password to install updates.  The password will be saved to your keychain for the next update and you will not be prompted again unless you change your password.

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Intel-based Macs will not prompt for a password and installation will start immediately.