Get Impulse from impulsedriven.com. Register you copy and update through there.

when you open impulse, on the righthand side of the toolbar is a button labeled "register product"

fill out the fields and click the button at the bottom labeled 'add registration'

this should then allow you to update, if it does not then you will need to email support at stardock.com with your details that you entered and explain the porblem to them

harpo

Impulse is not spyware and is not required to be running in the background, however if you do not wish to use it, you will not be able to update the game.

The big ones for me are that you can check for updates on multiple programs rather than one at a time, and it doesn't require building an exe from the devs, so it takes less time to get a patch out.

yes, download impulse... install updates... buy entrenchment (if you havent already) and then uninstall (untill next patch/diplomacy)

I was skeptical about Impulse too, but it's actually pretty benign.  You don't need to let it run in the background; just load it up whenever you want to patch the game and then close out of it when you're done.  Aside from being part of their system for digital rights management (DRM), supposedly it makes patching more efficient and results in smaller downloads than what you might otherwise need for a patch.  (If the only copy protection this game has is having to use Impulse, I don't have a problem with it; I'd much rather have that then CDkilla, Securom, Starforce, or even having to put the DVD in the drive everytime I want to play.)