Finally, I have decided to upgrade this website to WordPress 2.6 two days ago after giving it much thought. I had a pretty bad experience of backing up my files and accidentally deleting my images when I upgraded from WP 2.1 to 2.5 before. From then on, every upgrade notice sent chills down my spine so I just simply ignored them.

But thank God for someone who invented WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin. It made my life easier after that very short and smooth transition. I was waiting for my screen to go blink-blink but it did not. My files were safe. It was definitely sweat-free compared to the agony of doing manual upgrades. No FTP clients needed.

Here’s how the process takes place:

Backs up the files and makes available a link to download it.
Backs up the database and makes available a link to download it.
Downloads the latest files from http://wordpress.org/latest.zip and unzips it.
Puts the site in maintenance mode.
De-activates all active plugins and remembers it.
Upgrades wordpress files.
Gives you a link that will open in a new window to upgrade installation.
Re-activates the plugins.

If you haven’t updated yours, go get the plugin now.

See related posts:

• November 11, 2008 -- Installing Wordpress through Fantastico
• September 9, 2008 -- WordPress 2.6.2 released today