While not the most earth-shattering problem, I find it intensely irritating that every time I come to use the Download Assistant (DA), it almost always needs updating. I do find it intriguing that software for a basic task needs such frequent refreshes. It basically means that, most times, the response time is minutes to use it rather than the seconds it should be.
I would really like the option of the DA keeping itself up to date even if it was a weekly check.
I am not friend of being complaining often, but I must say I am with you in this one. Each time I want to update something, process must take several minutes. It is, indeed, very irritating.
I’m not sure what you mean here, the SDA is automatically updating itself. It did it for me yesterday, after month of just working.
Are you referring to the utilities the SDA also monitors and updates as needed, like the Activation Manager or Media Bay etc.?
What I mean is that it automatically updates itself only when you go to use SDA. As the update is never trivial, it takes a few minutes to download and install.
What I would prefer is that the SDA updates in the background silently. I appreciate that some people like to keep background tasks under control.
A notification that a update exists to allow the updates to be done at a convenient time would be a good alternative, something that pops up on the Windows notifications.
The one time I do not want to do an update is when I want to use SDA to update something else.
As I say, it’s a minor grievance in the grand scheme of things. Imagine a car that only updated its software when you tried to drive off while its been sitting overnight charging.
That is something I do not want at all, I have already too many of these background jobs active (well, most of them get killed as soon as I detect them).
Which is why I said the option, I’m well ahead of you. 
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As for interfering, it’s easy enough for Steinberg to check that Cubase isn’t executing so it doesn’t try and do anything when Cubase is actually running.
I guess the other issue is the SDA updates are never optional, plenty of other software has copious updates but you can choose to ignore them. The SDA updates process is quite obstructive.