Nokia Software Updater is a Windows based application from Nokia that enables customers to update their mobile device firmware of a recent Series 40 or S60 device from any Internet enabled access point.
The full list of supported phones is available in the official site.
On 2008-05-08, the developers of the program removed support for the Windows Vista operating system, citing 'compatibility problems' as the reason for doing so. This is an issue of great frustration for a large proportion of home users who are currently on Vista and as a result can no longer update their phone's firmware. An alternative is to run Windows XP under a Virtual Machine, such as VMware Workstation, connect the phone to the Virtual Machine, and then, run the update process from there.
In 2008-07-09, Nokia released version 1.4.49 which re-added support for Windows Vista
Nokia Software Updater does not update maps and voices for Nokia Maps. You'll need a separate program for this: Nokia Map Loader. This program only works on Windows and requires Microsoft .NET framework. There is a way to download maps and voices for Nokia Maps without the map loader.
Tip: Ensure you don't have VMware running during the update; during the update, new devices come online. If they are acknowledged via the guest VM, the update process can hang.
The Nokia Software Updater requires at least 256MB of RAM to function. This can be a problem with older systems on which attempting to start the application results in an error message.