Provided are a method, system, and article of manufacture for limiting the availability of computational resources to a device to stimulate a user of the device to apply necessary updates. Indication of the n update to the device is received and a determination is made as to whether the update has been applied to the device. The availability of computational resources at the device to use to execute processes at the device are limited in response to determining that the update has not been applied to the device. Processes are executed at the device using the limited available computational resources after the limiting of the availability of the computational resources. A determination is made as to whether the update has been applied to the device after limiting the availability of the computational resources. The limiting of the availability of the computational resources at the device is reversed in response to determining that the update to the device was applied.