One of the most popular features of Watchful enables one-click updates for Joomla and its add-ons directly from your dashboard.

This is currently possible for websites running Joomla 2.5 and greater.

Today, we proudly announce that Watchful now enables remote updates for the millions of Joomla websites that cannot or choose not to upgrade to modern versions of the CMS.

The problem

About 50% of all Joomla users are still using Joomla 1.5 which lacks the “Joomla update” feature found in Joomla 2.5 and later versions.

That’s about 14,000,000 websites running end-of-life software.

Of course we recommend that these websites migrate to more recent, more secure versions.

But in reality, most of these sites will never undergo an upgrade and require long term support.

The solution

The first step in helping Joomla 1.5 users protect their sites via Watchful is to provide a reliable way to install software.

The Remote Installer we launched last December was an obvious choice.

To enable this functionality, please install Watchful Client version 1.9.4 manually on each Joomla 1.5 site through the backend.

Now what? There aren’t any Joomla 1.5 software updates…

Once you’ve upgrade to the 1.9.4 Watchful Client, you can easily install software using the remote installer. You may already be doing for Joomla 2.5+.

There may not be regular releases for Joomla 1.5 add-ons, and there will never be any core updates for Joomla 1.5. However, there are still important updates you should be aware of and apply to all your sites.

For example, Akeeba Backup recently addressed a security vulnerability in its Joomla 1.5 version, along with other Joomla versions.

We easily installed version 3.3.4 on all our Joomla 1.5 sites without issue.

Similarly, the Joomla 1.5 security patch released by Anything Digital patches a critical security issue and can easily be applied via the remote installer.

Future updates to the Watchful Client can be easily applied to all your Joomla 1.5 sites in a similar manner

What does the future hold

With Joomla 1.5 representing such a large sector of the community, we feel it is too important an issue to be ignored.

That’s why all the Watchful features — including popular features such as backups and uptime — have been available for Joomla 1.5 users since our very first day of operation. We’ve also included all of the security updates including the hardening tweaks released earlier this month.

With support for remote updates now available, we’ll be looking for feedback in the comments below on ways to better leverage the Watchful toolbox to manage, backup, update and protect your Joomla 1.5 websites.