Another important and largely overlooked issue related to security and performance of your computer involves keeping the installed software updated. Contrary to popular belief, most of the free software is also constantly being developed and software version updates are available every now and then. So how do you keep track when a newer version for one of your installed software is available? Well you can manually keep checking sites like FileHippo, Softpedia, Download.com or you can use a tool like Techtracker.

Techtracker does all the heavy lifting for you when it comes to making sure the installed software is up to date. CNET requires you to register before you can download Techtracker, which is a bit annoying but comes in handy later in the form of software version update alerts and reports.

Once installed, Techtracker will scan your computer for installed software, check the version you have installed on your computer and the latest version that is available. In about a minute or two you can view the findings. It will list the software version updates that are available. Clicking on any one of them will take you to a detailed report of the scan.

The report lists all the software that Techtracker is tracking. The ones that need updating are displayed towards the top of the list. It lists the version you have installed on your computer and the latest version that is available. You can also find the download link for the latest version. Keep in mind that the download link would be to the latest version, if you are looking for a specific version you might have to hunt around.

The more info links display useful information like ratings, downloads and the file size. You can also customize the alert preferences from this page. By default the alerts are off. You can turn on alerts for all software which means that you will get an email when a newer version of any of your installed software is available, or you can turn off alerts on selected software that you want to be excluded from this feature.

What if you have more than one computer? Does Techtracker support multiple computers? Short answer: NO, Long answer: by the looks of it, they might support multiple computers in the future with a Techtracker pro application and some bucks (hmm..). Right now you would have to uninstall Techtracker from your computer, unlink the computer from your CNET account and then install Techtracker on the second computer.

Phew! That is some work, creating another account seems easier. How do you keep your computer software versions updated? We would love to hear about it in the comments.

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New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How To Save & Share Software Updates on Mac (9)
• FileHippo Update Checker Keeps Your PC Software Updated (23)
• Securing Third Party Software With Secunia PSI (7)
• Manage Application Updates With The ‘Google Updater’ Service [Windows] (3)
• How to Stop Annoying “Restart” Prompt after Windows Updates (14)

Doing my research for this post (yes, it’s almost like real journalism here at MakeUseOf), I was surprised to read the first version (1.0) was released only five years ago, in November of 2004. Even with the recent extra competition brought on by Chrome from Google, Internet Explorer and Opera, it kept gaining popularity. Mozilla Firefox now has a market share of about 22%.

Alright, enough with the history lesson. Many people like to take Firefox with them on a USB drive to college or work so that they can use their personalized settings and plugins. A lot of these places still use Internet Explorer 6 or something like that, so using a portable version of Firefox seems like the smart thing to do. Installing is easy when you use the portable version PortableApps, but updating Firefox portable is not so easy. If you don’t have a portable version of Firefox installed yet, read this article on how to turn your USB drive into a fully functional PC or just go to www.portableapps.com to install it. But if you want to update a portable Firefox app, you can’t just click the auto-updater button that pops-up when there’s a new version. You have to install a normal version of Firefox, with some special settings. Here’s how.

Download the regular setup file

You can download the regular setup file from Mozilla. The latest version at the time of writing is 3.5.2. So if you have a previous one, it’s wise to update because Mozilla keeps plugging security holes all the time.

Start the installation

Double-click the file you have just downloaded. Click ‘Next’ in the first window. Now pay attention as it goes a little differently than usual. In the second screen, select “Custom” and deselect the check-box next to “Use Firefox as my default web browser”.

Click ‘Next’ to continue.

In this screen, click “Browse” to search for the folder where your portable Firefox is installed on your USB drive. Select the “DefaultData\Firefox” folder so the location ends with “\FirefoxPortable\DefaultData\Firefox”. This way, you overwrite the files from the current installation but keep all your settings and plugins. Click ‘OK’ and ‘Next’.

In the next screen, deselect the options to create icons since you already have icons from the previous installation. After this, you can click ‘Next’ to check the summary and press “Install” to do just that.

There you have it, your portable Firefox is updated, all secure and future-proof. Until the next update anyway. Click “Finish” with the checkmark in place to check out the newest version of the open-source browser. You can take Firefox with you to your school or office. It’s also a great way to try out the newest alpha versions without endangering your stable version. You can find the latest test versions here, but as Mozilla themselves claim it “might delete all your files and cause your computer to burst into flames”.

If you’re new to the portable apps, I recommend looking around at their site Portableapps.com. There is a suite of the most used software that you can start with. Some apps to check out are OpenOffice.org Portable, Pidgin Portable and FileZilla Portable. Here are some more portable app suggestions.

Do you use portable apps? How do you update them to the latest versions? Share your technique in the comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• USB Office Showdown: Tiny USB Office vs. Portable Apps (16)
• Tweak Your Windows OS With Portable Ultimate Windows Tweaker (18)
• Toss Broken Keyboard to side with Portable On-Screen Keyboard (14)
• Test Firefox 3.04 beta on your PC Without Installing a Thing (10)
• Run Commands & Applications With Numeric Keys Using ControlPad [Windows] (23)

Surely updating all of your applications manually one by one is not an option. The process should be done as automatically as it can. That’s what computer and technology is all about, right?

Mac OS X comes with its own software update application, but it is limited only to its native applications. That leaves the 3rd-party applications on the stone-age manual-updating world. There are applications that has automatic update features but you still have to open the application to activate it. So much for an automation, huh?

There are several alternatives for Windows; while for Mac there’s AppFresh, the app that will help Mac users to keep all installed applications, widgets, preference panes and application plugins always up to date.

How to keep the rest fresh

The idea behind this app is to provide an easy to use central place – which is fully integrated with Mac OS X – to update all of the 3rd party apps. No more “always updating just before using” thing (or worst: “go online and find the updates yourself”). AppFresh will keep your apps in the latest top notch condition and have them ready to use everytime you open them.

To ensure the “freshness” of its performance, AppFresh integrates the most popular and most common update checking technologies into itself such as Apple Software Update, Sparkle, Microsoft AutoUpdate, Adobe Updater, OSX.IUseThis and more.

However, as with every other beta version application out there, please note that there might be glitches with this one also. So, it’s better to backup than be sorry.

Freshen Up the List

After downloading and unarchiving the 1.4 Mb small zip file, you can directly put AppFresh to use.

The first window that you’ll see upon using the app for the first time is the warning window telling the users that the preview 8 version of the app is still under development process and that the users should always do backup.

There’s also an optional offer to integrate AppFresh with the IUseThis service.

Then AppFresh will scan your system for all of the installed apps,

followed by the process of finding updates to all of those apps.

The result will be listed and grouped into several main categories: Status (Updated, Unknown, Update Available), Type (Applications, Plugins, Widgets, PrefPanes), Vendors (Apple, Third Party), and My Categories (which you can customize to fit your needs).

Here’s the scan result from my Mac: There are 391 applications inside my system (I know there are many, but I’ve never guessed there were that many).  117 of them are updated while the other 109 can be updated with the available newer version. The status of the remaining 165 are unknown.

Select one of the apps and you will get some information about it on the right pane. Right click on the app and you will have several choices of action from the pop-up menu. To update the app, choose “Install”.

You can also update many apps all at once by selecting several (or all) apps on the list, right click and choose Install.

After the updating process is finished, a Growl notification will pop up.

I also found another useful usage of AppFresh: to delete apps. From the list of installed apps populated by AppFresh, I found many apps that I’ve never used and totally forgotten about. So I just right click on them and choose “Send To Trash”. Spring cleaning comes early this year .

Have you tried AppFresh to update your mac software? Do you know other alternatives? Share your thoughts and opinions using the comments below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Manage Application Updates With The ‘Google Updater’ Service [Windows] (3)
• How to Stop Annoying “Restart” Prompt after Windows Updates (14)
• How To Save & Share Software Updates on Mac (9)
• Find Newer Versions Of Installed Software with Techtracker (22)
• FileHippo Update Checker Keeps Your PC Software Updated (23)

Google Updater is a part of the Google Pack (Google’s own apps and a few third party tools like Firefox, Norton Security Scan etc.). Google Updater is the small itsy bitsy “installer” that downloads and installs the software. But its brevity goes beyond that as it also monitors the apps for updates and manages their run. In short, it’s a meta-installer and auto-updater.

The two hitches …

Being a package management app also means that Google Updater continues to run behind the scenes though in the new version it is controlled by the Windows Task Manager to run once every hour. You can see it running in the background by doing a Ctrl + Alt + Del and going down the Task Manager entries. Some users feel that apps should give the option of self-timed updates rather than the auto-updater butting in. (It is especially annoying when the firewall catches it while auto-updating). Also, a separate service running in the computer (and consuming resources) for update checking is the exception rather than the rule.

Then according to Google,

When Google Update communicates with Google servers, it sends IDs of Google Update-managed applications on your computer and general usage information for these applications. Google Update also uses its own, randomly-generated unique ID number to accurately count total users. This information includes version numbers, languages, operating system, and other install or update-related details, such as whether or not the applications have been run. This information is not associated with you or your Google Account. Additional information may be sent if you choose to send your usage statistics for Google Chrome.

It is this point where a lot of brow wrinkling has come about. Though the information is sent using random IDs, any user might feel a bit ill at ease with his usage information being uploaded however benign the intention. While Google has tried to ease the issues by open sourcing the Google Updater code (the Omaha project), a lot of us will still have a go at blocking it.

The 2 ways to disable Google Updater

A. Remove from startup

1. Click on Start – Run. Type in msconfig in the Open field and click OK.
2. The System Configuration Utility opens up. Select the Startup tab. Go down to the GoogleUpdate startup item and deselect it.
3. Restart the computer.

B. Stop the Google Update service from running

1. Click on Start – Run. Type in services.msc in the Open field and click OK.
2. In Services, scroll down to GoogleUpdate Service. Double click on it to open the Properties box (or right click and select Properties).  The Startup Type drop-down lists three options – select Disabled.
3. Click on Apply and OK.

The 2 ways to manage Google Updater

Manage Updates using the Task Scheduler

Spurred by the concerns of an automatic updater as a background process, Google now has added the option – Let me check for updates myself under the Preferences tab. Also, the Updater runs only periodically as per the Windows Task Scheduler.

To run the task scheduler, click Start – All Programs – Accessories – System Tools – Scheduled Tasks.

The default interval for Updates is to connect to Google’s servers once an hour. It will stop running after it checks for updates. You can change the schedule double clicking on the Google Software Updater and setting a new time in the Schedule Tab.

But as Google says, if the Updater or the Task scheduler is seen to be not working properly then Google Update resumes its automatic behavior. I am also not sure whether a new install of a Google app affect the user set update time.

The Google Updater can also be configured to update either all software in the Google Pack or only software developed by Google. And if you no longer use any Google apps, it uninstalls itself.

Manage Updates using the Group Policy Editor

In mid-May, Google explained how the Google Update could be customized (set update periods or disable it) for enterprise users using the Group Policy Editor (gpedit.msc) using an imported administrative template. Power users can check out the detailed instructions given in the help.

Most software these days feature automatic updates. The need to keep applications updated is vital to plug malware attacks and remove bugs. But many users voice that there is no need to check for updates so frequently. If your voice is one of them then these methods would help in ‘caging the little beast’.

Do you agree with the concerns or do you feel that automatic updates are the way to go? Let us know in the comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Share & Centralize Your Health Information With Google Health (7)
• iContact – Bring your Gmail Contacts to the Desktop (13)
• How to Stop Annoying “Restart” Prompt after Windows Updates (14)
• How To Save & Share Software Updates on Mac (9)
• How To Make Short URL’s on Your Domain with Google Apps (14)

I’m sure you’ve had to deal with this; It pops up every ten minutes after a major system update. Fortunately, it can be turned off. I’m going to help you to create a shortcut that will turn this nag off when double-clicked.

So, how to stop automatic updates from restarting your PC

Step 1

Your first step is to open Notepad. (Start > Run > “Notepad” > OK)

In Notepad, just type the command “net stop wuauserv” (no quotes, as in above). Then close the window, and select “Yes” to save changes.

Step 2

What we’re doing is creating an executable batch file which will run a command when double-clicked, to stop the Windows Automatic Updates Service. Make sure that your “Save as type” is set to “All Files” so that you don’t accidently create a text file. Save your file with an extension of “.bat”

Step 3

This cute little batch file is what you’re left with.

When Windows starts nagging you to restart, just double click this to run it and stop the service. You won’t be bothered again. The service will restart when you reboot, which is needed to install the updates in the first place.

Is there anything that Windows does that annoys you? Maybe we can find a fix for it. Are yu awrae of any easier way to stop automatic updates from restarting your Windows. Please give us some ideas in the comments.

Think it’s time to update your PC? Varun will teach you 5 Ways To Update Your Windows Operating System.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• 7 Ways to keep on top of your Software Updates (10)
• Securing Third Party Software With Secunia PSI (7)
• Manage Application Updates With The ‘Google Updater’ Service [Windows] (3)
• Keep your Windows Up To Date with UpdateStar (17)
• How To Speed Up The Shutdown Of Your Windows (14)

Keeping up with the constant updates is an art in itself. Not everybody has the time nor the willingness to do that. That’s why most modern software and operating systems have the automatic-updates feature built in.

Mac OS X is no exception.

Software Update Settings

Mac OS X uses an application called Software Update to help keep users up to date with all Apple-related updates. This app is located in the Apple Menu.

By default, Software Update will regularly check the updates in the background. But the settings can be changed via System Preferences –> Software Updates

After the Software Updates Preferences window opens, choose the “Scheduled Check” tab.

Users can also check all the updates that have been installed in the past from the “Installed Updates” tab.

Everything is set to run automatically, from checking to the installing. With user’s permission, Software Updates will acquire the files, install them, and get out of the sight. But the minimal user participation might not fit everyone’s preference.

The Missing Updates

From my low-speed internet connection point of view, most of the updates downloaded from Apple are enormously huge. Some files could go above a hundred megabytes. The thought of having to re-downloading them again gives me major goosebumps.

But it seems that after the installation process, all the downloaded files are nowhere to be found. It means that under this condition, if a person who owns (or manages) several Macs wants update OS X, he/she has to download all of the updates in each and every machine. Wow.

Editor’s note: You may also find some software update packages in /Library/Receipts/

I’m sure that there are a lot of Mac users who would like to backup the updates to be reused later – or to be installed on other machine(s) – but don’t know how.

There’s an easy way to do just that.

Saving the Updates

In the updating process, right after the Software Update window has opened, do not click the “Install X Item(s)” below. Instead, click on the Update menu and choose “Download Only”. Then, continue with the updating process.

After the download is done, you can choose to install the update packages or just close the Software Update window.

Either way, the downloaded packages are stored in the Download folder.

Using this method, me and my fellow Mac users with crawling internet connections could collect and share updates. We can save time, bandwidth, and money; while strengthening the bonds among members of the community.

As always, share your thoughts, opinions and experiences in the comment below. And don’t forget to check out other MakeUseOf articles about software updates.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Find Newer Versions Of Installed Software with Techtracker (22)
• FileHippo Update Checker Keeps Your PC Software Updated (23)
• Securing Third Party Software With Secunia PSI (7)
• Manage Application Updates With The ‘Google Updater’ Service [Windows] (3)
• How to Stop Annoying “Restart” Prompt after Windows Updates (14)

First, RadarSync scans your Windows system for programs which may need updating. It did not take long, even on a large, installation-heavy system like mine. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of programs the scanner recognized, including system drivers.  Once the scan results appeared, I had the opportunity to select which updates to download. Alternately, I had the option to save the list as a software “pack” using RadarSync’s Packzoola service, which is free, for later use. Think of Packzoola packs as custom playlists for software which can be shared. You may view my example pack here.

With two clicks, you can download the installer files for all of your updates. RadarSync states that these updates come directly from the programs’ official servers. The installers are stored in a folder under My Documents, and can be launched or deleted from RadarSync’s interface.

You even will get a pop-up notice when the installer is available and will be prompted to create a System Restore point. By default, the installers are deleted after 30 days, which can be changed. For the security-conscious, RadarSync has a privacy policy.

RadarSync makes for a quick and easy way to update Windows programs and system files. You may download it here. It’s compatible with Windows XP and Vista on both 32 & 64-bit platforms.

For variety, here are five more ways to update Windows.

How do you go about updating every piece of application on your computer? Feel free to leave us comments.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Manage Application Updates With The ‘Google Updater’ Service [Windows] (3)
• How to Stop Annoying “Restart” Prompt after Windows Updates (14)
• How To Save & Share Software Updates on Mac (9)
• How To Automatically Update 3′rd Party Apps on Your Mac (5)
• Find Newer Versions Of Installed Software with Techtracker (22)

Your Mac is also the kind of machine which can go on fine for ages without the need for rebooting. My Mac’s last reboot was three weeks ago when I installed a few software updates. So, the maintenance arrangement seems logical.

But if you are the kind of person who can’t leave the machine without turning it off, or if your machine is in the office where the rules require you to turn it off every time you leave it, your Mac might have missed several maintenance schedules, and the cumulative effects could cause several glitches.

In the rare cases where the automatic maintenance schedule fails, you are advised to do it manually. However, one of the alternative applications that can help you is MainMenu.

Upon installation, this small app – about 1.4MB in size – will reside in your menubar above next to the clock and other tools like Bluetooth and Airport status. From this menubar icon, you can access MainMenu’s menus.

The first thing you would want to do is to go to the “Preferences”

and choose “General”. Make sure that the “Start MainMenu automatically when I log in” box is checked. This will make sure that it will always be available for you to use.

You can choose what kind of menubar icon you want to use from the “Appearance” tab.

The “Log Window” tab gives you options to display the log window and set the hotkey.

“Batch Tasks” might be the most important tab of all. Here you can choose what tasks need to be done when you choose “Execute Batch Task” (Command + R).

There are two main groups here: the tasks that need no restart after executed and the tasks that do. But it seems the developer has saved the latter group for the next version of the app.

For me, I would check all of the boxes in the Batch Tasks except for the “Clear All Browser History” and “Empty All Browser Caches”.

Another tabs are “Updates” and “Registration”. Note: no registration is needed for version 1.x.

MainMenu’s Menus

Now let us see the menus.

For those who don’t want to be bothered by the little things, just pick “Execute Batch Task” (Command + R).

The “Maintenance Scripts” I mentioned – that run in the middle of the night – are available at the top. There are the “Daily”, “Weekly” and “Monthly” scripts, but to make life easier, choose “All Scripts” to run.

Other menus are: “Disk Utility”, “Rebuild”, “Cleaning”, “Finder” and “Others”; each with their own sets of tasks that you can explore and choose.

But the one that I find most useful is the “Disable Dashboard” task from the “Others” menu, as I almost never use Dashboard and its widgets.

I could use the extra power gained from disabling Dashboard to other “heavy” activities such as composing my next hit with Garageband or editing my vacation videos in iMovie.

Do you have any other favorite utility tool? Share your experiences using the comment section below.

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How To Place Your Widgets On The Desktop [Mac] (8)
• Dashboard Widgets You Can’t Live Without [Mac Only] (10)
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And these days, we rarely see “viruses”. They typically fall into the spyware category. Pop-Ups, porn and fake AV products seem to be the most popular of malicious material presently. While your AV sits in the system tray hanging out and doing absolutely nothing to protect you.

The majority of the time you end up relying on on another product to get the annoyingware off of your machine. So now you’ve got a $60 bloated product eating up resources on your machine and doing absolutely nothing to protect you.

In order to be preventative, it would be nice to maybe give some of these products, which usually have a trial version, a run for their money before making the plunge and purchasing the full product. I’ve found a few tools to give each of these a test run, and see how well they actually are protecting you.

Testing your Anti-Virus

An IT security group based in Europe called Eicar has come with a few different tools to test the effectiveness of your preferred AntiVirus application. There a few individual files to download and run, along with a ZIPPED file that will test your AV software and their ability to scan for viruses deeply embedded into other files. I should point out that Eicar does have a disclaimer:

Important note: EICAR cannot be held responsible when these files or your AV scanner in combination with these files cause any damage to your computer. YOU DOWNLOAD THESE FILES AT YOUR OWN RISK. Download these files only if you are sufficiently secure in the usage of your AV scanner. EICAR cannot and will not provide any help to remove these files from your computer. Please contact the manufacturer/vendor of your AV scanner to seek such help.

So, in other words, unless you have complete trust your in prevention, I would use either a virtual machine or another test machine besides your main system to do this test.

Testing your Anti-Malware

Malware is a whole different ballgame, and is much more common and prevalent in today’s “internet” world. A common, everyday search can easily ring in loads of pop-ups, adware, and deeply buried malware, spying on keystrokes, monitoring cookies and just being down right annoying. The problem is that it’s always evolving, and many protective products can’t always prevent malicious activity. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t attempt to block it.

Spycar attempts to hijack your system, similar to typical malware activity and gives your protection a test. Spycar does not include any “exploits”, so you do have to click OK during the process for the test to take affect. If your preventative software is successful during the process, a built-in TowTruck application responds with a rating on your prevention and then returns your system to it’s original state.

There are several different tests to run through. All attempting to try and take advantage of all the various activity that normal malware would. These tools are fantastic. Especially for a brand new system you may be setting up in a business or enterprise environment.

Although not mandatory on all PCs, having some type of protection on your computer today is almost always a must. The problem that most tech savvy users have with them, is that most, just don’t work and most eat up way to many resources. Having a way to actually test some of the options out there, is a fantastic way to make your final decision. So you try it out…Download the latest AVG, Symantec or NOD32 trial and see which comes out on top with each of these tools.

Have any good sites to audit your pc for free? What sites are guaranteed to attempt to hijack your machine? What anti-malware apps do you use?

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• Stop & Delete Spyware With Malwarebytes [Windows] (29)
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What do you mean you don’t know?

Hmmm….maybe you didn’t know that older versions of software are potential security risks? A lot of the time software is updated exclusively to plug a hole or stop a certain exploit. So by running older outdated software releases you might be doing more damage than you know! Thus make sure to keep your software up to date.

Luckily your friendly neighborhood admin has found a little 153KB application that will use FileHippo’s wonderful software update checker to go out and find the latest and greatest version information for each installed app. It then compares it to what is on your system giving you a list with clickable links to download the updated software.

I browsed on over to here and clicked on the following link:

Update Checker v1.030 FHSetup.exe (153kb) Download now Note: If you wish to download the standalone version without an installer then click here.

I installed it and ran it. It took all of 3 minutes for it to install and run to completion. I didn’t check or change any options and this was what I got back:

And that’s not all – it shows us BETA updates as well:

Wow who would have thought it? I am out of date on a bunch of applications! Shame on me! But as you can see those nifty green arrows on the right of each program will allow you to DIRECTLY download the installable exe file to update your software. Below is a shot of what popped up on my screen when I clicked the green down arrow next to VLC Media Player 0.9.8.a

That’s right – no hunting for software or the right version! FileHippo does it for you!

I have been using their website for a while now to find version information or track down an older version of something.

This is PC only and works on the following setups:

The Update Checker works on any Windows PC running Vista, XP, 2003, 2000, ME or 98.
It requires that the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 is installed, which you may download directly from here, or the installer will prompt and download it automatically.

Most importantly FileHippo has a privacy policy that states clearly that they will not send ANY of your personal info back to their servers. It seems like they make money from Adsense advertisements on their page.

Here is their privacy policy for those of you that are interested:

The Update Checker will not send any personal information back to FileHippo.com. The only information collected is a list of programs and their versions, along with the operating system details to help with processing. Additionally none of this is linked to your IP address and the logs are deleted after processing.

The settings are pretty limited but they give you the option to run this app on startup and specify other directories to look for installed applications (My Program Files is used by default)

How do you keep your Windows Program files updated? Share your methods with our readers in the comments!

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

New on MakeUseOf ? Get cheat sheets and cool PDF guides @ www.makeuseof.com/makeuseof-downloads/

• How To Save & Share Software Updates on Mac (9)
• Find Newer Versions Of Installed Software with Techtracker (22)
• Securing Third Party Software With Secunia PSI (7)
• Manage Application Updates With The ‘Google Updater’ Service [Windows] (3)
• How to Stop Annoying “Restart” Prompt after Windows Updates (14)

But the best feature of Notify.Me is being updated about specific keyword articles – more on that later though.

To get started with Notify.Me, head on over to the website and click on ‘Register’. Give them a username, password and an arm and a leg … oh sorry, your email address. That should do it. You’ll get an email from Notify.Me with an embedded link. Click on the link to verify your email address and you’re good to go.

Once you’re logged in, you’ll have to set up your Notify.Me account. From here on, the process involves following a simple wizard and giving the website some information.

The first screen asks you for your mobile number so that Notify.Me can send you notifications over SMS. I don’t know if you’d like to be SMS’ed every time Techcrunch posts a new article but for news and similar stuff, I can definitely see the use.

Did I tell you that you can also configure Notify.Me to send you updates over IM ? The next step in the account setup wizard shows you how to do exactly that. They have instructions for working with Pidgin, Google Talk, Adium and Jabber, so they’ve got pretty much all operating systems covered, although personally I’d love to see MSN and Yahoo messenger also on that list.

The next screen asks will let you enter all the feeds that you’d like notify.me to keep a track of.

The best part is that you can even filter the kind of notifications that you want to be, well, notified about.

For example, suppose you only want to hear about Gmail related articles on MakeUseOf. Just head over here to MakeUseOf. In the search box, type Gmail and press enter. Now, copy the URL from the address bar and paste it in the Notify.Me text box marked ‘Feed’. That’s it.

Now, every time there is an article mentioning Gmail on Make Use Of, you’ll get a notification. You can even filter the source further by specifying keywords in the filter text box. Click on the IM, SMS or email icon to set the method by which you want to get your fix … err, feed.

This can also obviously be done for any other blogs too where you would like to only be notified about articles on particular subjects.   Just go to that site, enter the subject into the blog’s search engine and copy the URL into Notify.Me’s text box.

So, you’re all set now? What if one day you’re surfing your blues away and come across a really interesting site and would like to see that added to your notify list?  Well, Notify.Me has you covered there too. With the bookmarklets that they provide, you can add new sources to your account as fast as you can click the bookmark button.

I can definitely see myself using this service to keep myself abreast of the latest news and blog posts. Are there any other similar services that you guys use ? I’d love to hear about them.

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Frankly, when I boot a program I can’t be bothered with updates, which is why I was still running old versions of FileZilla and Winamp for quite some time.

UpdateStar provides a quick and easy way to check all installed programs on your system for updates. It covers freeware, shareware, demos, and commercial software.

The strength and the weakness of this tool is that it relies on the community of users to add information and download links to the database, and to rate offered updates. This opens the door for fraud or misunderstandings. One would hope that all information would be double checked by the people maintaining the database at UpdateStar, but as they are only human, mistakes are sure to happen.

For example, I’m using a tool called CheckDrive to monitor hard disk errors and fragmentation. UpdateStar suggested an update which lead me to a program called Check&Drive or ChecknDrive, which is a vehicle maintenance software. Well, I don’t even own a car, so that wasn’t helpful. So what I did was send an update with the correct information and links, and I’m looking forward to seeing when UpdateStar will correct the error.

Another example are links to pages where you can buy the latest updates for commercial software. Following the CorelDraw download link I was sent to the Corel homepage, which is how it should work. The Microsoft Office Pro 2003 download however linked to Amazon.ca, which isn’t helpful since I’m not in Canada, not even close. UpdateStar may send you to their partner sites, which is how they finance the free service. But this may not be the best or cheapest option for you, if any option at all.

Now, I didn’t run into any obvious scams. Nevertheless, this is beta software and it does rely on user input, so in using it, it does require some common sense. UpdateStar doesn’t automatically download and install updates, you still need to do that manually. Follow the provided link, select the download on the respective website and finally run the installation. What can be set to run automatically is the daily, weekly or monthly search for updates. However, it will only work if the program is already running.

Also, UpdateStar does not recognize all programs. Avira AntiVir for example left it clueless, it didn’t even list which version I was running. Even though it’s correct that updates for many commercial programs such as PhotoImpact, EndNote or Tunebite are available, I’m not interested in purchasing them. Luckily, you can choose to ignore them simply by removing a checkmark.

Taken together, it’s clear that there is room for improvement. The time this tool saves you by acting as a central platform to keep your software up to date, is redeemed when you start to correct errors, add information and overall contribute to its growth. However, all of this is optional. What is clearly missing is an option to manually submit details about installed software the program did not list in the first place. The FAQ states that “UpdateStar uses a learning software database. If your program is not yet recognized by UpdateStar, then it is already marked for inclusion. Due to the high number of available software products world-wide, this may take a few days. In a short while UpdateStar should also recognize your program.” Does this sound rather cryptic to your ears as well? We will see.

There are some alternatives to UpdateStar.

AppGet didn’t impress me much with the latest version being of September 14th, 2007. Then the whole interface isn’t appealing at all, but it did count 81 available updates in my 172 applications. It listed all Windows Hotfixes and found some programs I thought I had uninstalled, and I guess that’s why the numbers differ so grossly.

For many, many programs such as Office 2003 or FileZilla, no URLs were available, instead a Google search was suggested. Since download links do exist and users can submit these links and some suggested “latest versions” are in fact not the latest, it’s my guess that this community is not up to date at all.

I used UpdateStar to uninstall the program.

FileHippo’s Update Checker seems to be the better alternative. It’s a very simple tool with limited options. You run the program manually, it scans the system and then opens a browser window listing all software for which FileHippo can provide updates. In my case it detected 11 updates and 3 beta updates.

The obvious drawback is that it’s not only simple, it’s also not very thorough and doesn’t allow user feedback. Additionally, it requires Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 installed on your computer.

Do you know of any better alternatives? Please comment and share!

(By) This post was written by one of our regular authors, Tina from Recommended.

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If you don’t know this by now, you should learn this immediately, keep your software up to date. Here are 5 methods to aid this task.

1. UpdateStar (Win)- Still in Beta, but highly functional, downloadable software that scans your computer, including your "Add or Remove Programs" area for all installed software. Not only does UpdateStar analyze all of the installed programs on your windows system, it also displays all available updates for the product. The information regarding the software and the information is very thorough. The only draw backs are that they "recommend" programs (that cost money) that they think "you would be interested in".

2. AppSnap (Win)- Gaining recent popularity with it’s latest update, AppSnap is configurable program that scans your computer for all installed applications. Appsnap then guides you through the software that needs updating (incl. size and version #). You can download and install several updates in just a few clicks. Only criticisms are that the database is not as large.

3. AppUpdate (Mac) – AppUpdate is a free Mac Dashboard Widget that combines Apple’s Software Directory, MacUpdate and Version Tracker. "It will present you with a tidy link list of all the updates found, enabling you to read release-notes and download the the updates quickly and painlessly."

4. Individual Feeds – Many software products, especially open source, will have their own feed/news section to subscribe to. This is always the best way to keep on top of your software without having to download any program to tell you what you need to download. In addition, the feeds usually offer explanations and the reason behind each new release.

5. Sourceforge Feed – Sourceforge feeds are a great way to keep on top of individual software projects/programs, and to learn about new software. Especially Open Source software, my favorite kind.

6. Filehippo Feed – Same as Sourceforge, but it is not limited to just open source software. Filehippo includes open source, freeware, shareware and commercial software. Once again, another great way to learn about other programs and software.

7. Version Tracker (Mac or Win) – Version Tracker tarcks updates for thousands of software products (Note: many programs are shareware (free trial) or commercial). Similarly to abov, you can subscribe to their feed and monitor updates for relevant programs. Version Tracker is very comprehensive, I’ve learned about some great programs through their feed.

Something I missed? Let us know in comments …

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

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