I had been a little remiss in updating the blog (both posts and administrative stuff.) Updating a WordPress site is not particularly difficult but can be a little tedious because after backing up the site you either have to delete a bunch of files (but only certain files) from several different directories (but not all) then copy in the new files. I’ve done that in the past but I’ve also updated just by copying new files over top of the old ones. It’s not the recommended way to do it but I’ve never had a problem. Bottom-line is either way it’s a task that needs to be scheduled and with all the other tasks I need to do it usually gets pushed off.

So while looking for an anticipated release date of version 2.7 I stumbled over a reference to an automatic upgrade installer plugin (you can find it here.) Very simple to use, takes only a few minutes, and still follows the “best-practices.” Only glitch I ran into is Vista refuses to open the .ZIP files that the upgrade creates when it backs up the existing files and database. WinZip on WindowsXP has no problem with it.

While I was at it I added the new encryption salts to the configuration file (this is a feature added to WordPress 2.5 and enhanced in 2.6.) Hey, a little more security never hurt anyone especially if it’s transparent to the visitor or user.

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