The attacks often exploit vulnerabilities in popular software programs or operating systems.

Software like Patch My PC can aid users in the tasks. The program scans the Windows PC for popular software programs that are out of date offering to download and install the patches and new versions automatically.

The application supports the following programs: Adobe Air, Adobe Flash AX, Adobe Flash Plugin, Adobe Reader, Apple Safari, Audacity, CCleaner, Defraggler, Dropbox, Firefox, Foxit Reader, Google Chrome, Google Earth, Imgburn, iTunes, Java, Keepass, MalwareBytes, Notepad ++, Opera, Pidgen Chat, Piscasa, PowerISO, Quicktime, Real Player, Shockwave, Silverlight, Skype, Speccy, Spybot, Search And Destroy, Thunderbird, VLC Player, Winrar, Yahoo Messenger

Outdated software will be highlighted in red color, up to date software in green and not installed or detected software in gray.

All programs and plugins that have been identified as “not recent” by Patch My PC will be listed under the Update Process listing in the main interface. Only the current version of the program is displayed here, which makes it more difficulty to verify which new version has been released. for each individual program.

A click on the run updates button downloads all available updates for common (aka popular) products and all updates for checked optional software products. You can click on Optional Software first to select some or all programs there that need updating. It is recommended to check the findings prior to installing the updates to include the updates in the process.

A right-click on an entry under Common Updates opens a context menu with options to skip a particular update or to install or re-install the application.

Patch My PC Video

Some updates may require that certain programs like browsers are closed by the user prior to installation. This is for instance the case when installing technologies like Flash or Java that integrate as plugins into web browsers.

All updates are applied as silent updates that require no user interaction.

It is recommended to create a Restore Point in the menu prior to installing updates. While Windows may create updates automatically on software installations, there is no guarantee that this is happening on all installations.

I would recommend running the Uninstall a Program control panel applet in the background to verify that new versions were successfully installed.

Patch My PC can furthermore check for Windows Updates right from the program window. The native Windows Update app is linked under the Windows Tools section as well. The program can check for and install Windows Updates automatically.

The Windows Tools section links to Windows System Tools like the Windows Firewall, Windows Backup, the Device Manager or the Task Manager.

What’s missing? An option to run a specific software update only, and options to schedule silent checks and installation of updates in the background.

The software catalog is not as big as that of comparable programs like Sumo (see Battle of the Software Updaters for more suggestions). It is also noteworthy that the program does not check beta or alpha versions.

Windows users can download the latest version of Patch My PC from the developer website. The program is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system.

The developers of Iron have created a privacy and feature comparison that highlights privacy issues identified in Chrome and how SRWare Iron handles those issues.

Chrome features like the installation ID, error reporting or suggest do not exist in the Iron web browser. Another feature that is not used is Google Updater, which is a system process that checks for updates periodically.

A missing auto-update functionality on the other hand means that users need to monitor the web page of the project for information about new versions that are released by the developers. New versions often introduce privacy or security fixes to the browser which highlights that it is essential to update the browser as quickly as possible.

The third party application SRWare Iron Auto-Updater for Windows adds the automatic update functionality to Iron. The program is however more versatile than Google Update. When you start the portable software for the first time you will see a screenshot that looks like the following.

The program tries to locate the Iron path on the local hard drive automatically. You can click on the Browse button if it is has not been identified correctly, or if you are running multiple versions of the browser on your system.

The update and download url should remain untouched. They both point to the official project website. The update check interval has been set to six hours, which some users may want to reduce to make sure they update the browser as soon as an update is released by SRWare.

The automatically start with Windows box can be checked to autostart the updater with the operating system.

You can download SRWare Iron Auto-Updater from Softpedia. The software is fully compatible with all recent 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system.

One problem with both options is that the tools are not updated automatically which means that it is up to the user to find out if updates exist and if they do download and replace the old file versions with the new.

While it is possible to directly access the tools at http://live.sysinternals.com/ it is usually better to have them available locally as they are then available even if no Internet connection is available.

SysInternals Updater has been designed to make the updating of SysInternals applications comfortable. The portable application can be used to scan a folder for existing programs, compare their versions with the latest versions and download selected program files to the local system.

It is semi-automated which means that it is up to the user to select the right folder where the applications are installed. Users should note that the tool assumes that all programs are stored in the same directory which is the case if the SysInternals Suite has been downloaded and unpacked.

SysInternals Updater checks the program versions of the selected folder automatically and auto-selects those files that are either not update or non existing in the folder. It is possible to select or deselect files which is the only way to update only those files that are already on the host system.

SysInternals Updater is a handy tool, especially for users who have downloaded the full suite of applications from SysInternals. The software is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows. A download is provided at the developer website.

Especially limited application databases and the detection of false positives, that is updates that are not existing, have been major problems in most update checkers so far.

R-Updater is a new program that can keep software up to date on a computer system. The program checks automatically for installed software on startup, and compares the versions of the discovered software in an online database.

software updater

The application divides the updates into three categories: Catalog versions, user versions and beta versions. Neither the homepage nor the program explain the differences, we assume that catalog versions refer to final releases on the developer website, user versions to versions that users of the R-Updater program run and beta versions to beta versions of the programs.

Not all categories are usually filled with version information, which highly depends on the developer’s developer and beta release code of practice. Software Updates are indicated in the updates section of the program. Each program is listed with its name and version, next to the updates that have been found in the database.

A double-click launches a website with direct links to the program and the developer website. False positives can be removed from the listing by right-clicking an entry and selecting the Don’t Call option.

R-Updater finds a solid amount of installed applications, the update check however sometimes failed to detect that an Internet connection was present, a restart resolved the problem on our test PC.

Update notifications can be configured individually for each software. It is for instance possible to only display stable updates for some programs, and beta or all updates for others.

The scheduler holds options to change the frequency of update checks and scans for new software on the system, both are set to once per week by default.

Another interesting option is the ability to add software manually to the software list in the program. Portable software, and software missed by the automatic scan, can be added this way.

R-Updater is a solid software updater for Windows. It is available at the developer’s website as an installer or portable version. The program itself is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Microsoft Windows operating system.

The only valid option for users who want to automate the process is to make use of one of the third party software updaters like Sumo, UpToDate or the FileHippo Update Checker.

WinApp Updater is another computer software updater. It is a portable Open Source application that is currently offered as a beta version. The program lists the installed software programs on startup and checks their version against the version in the updater’s online database.

Not all apps report their version and it sometimes means that the user needs to manually check the version to see if an update for the software is available.

Each program is ideally listed with the installed version, the latest version that has been retrieved online and the description. WinApp Updater displays a menu in a sidebar that can be used to filter the software programs and drivers.

All programs with new software versions available can be upgraded by clicking on the upgrade button in the main toolbar. It is here possible to perform normal or silent installations of the updates.

Another option is to right-click a computer software program to upgrade only that program or perform other options like retrieving the latest version of the application or setting the installed version of the software to the latest which is handy for applications that do not report their version to WinApp Manager.

The settings can be used to define the install and upgrade modes. The user will be asked by default which can be changed to silent or attended.

A major disadvantage of WinApp Manager in its current state is the low amount of computer software programs that are supported. Many popular applications like Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Skype or ICQ are supported but it does not support other popular programs like Opera or CCleaner.

WinApp Manager is an interesting computer software updater. The developer’s need to add support for more applications to make it a serious contender in the niche. Windows users can download the software updater from Sourceforge. It is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of windows. (via Troublefixers)

The software updater will perform an initial scan of the installed programs of the operating system and display them in a list afterwards. The software programs in the list can then be scanned for updates by clicking on the UpToDate button at the top. This will open a SSL connection to the server which will return information. These information are divided into programs that are up to date, programs for which an update is available and programs that are either unknown or unsupported.

Filters are available at the top which can display or hide these specific groups in the interface.

The program will only list programs with updates and unknown programs by default. A click on the plus sign in front of every listed application will open the available updates that are known for the program. Information, if available, about the update are listed in the left sidebar. This sidebar will always contain a link to the developer homepage from where the update can be downloaded.

The method is different from other programs that scan for software updates who usually link to one of their homepages and not the developer. Another difference is that it is not possible to initiate downloads from within the application. That’s a good thing as it makes it easier to check the update for validity before installing it. It is on the other hand less comfortable. It is possible to include beta and alpha releases in the update process.

A few minor problems became apparent after a while. Updates for Opera 10.00 included Opera 10.10 (which was fine) but also Opera 75 and Opera 85, two products that are not existing likely caused by reporting errors. This is not such a huge problem as the user will find out about the available versions on the Opera website.

The software also did list all but the latest patch for a game that was installed in the new version available listing which could be confusing to users who have the latest patch installed. It listed a few false positives (e.g. Winamp 5.56 updates like Winamp 5.552 which does not seem right) but those were just a few.

Most of the recognized updates were dead on and the amount of updates found was impressive as well. Software UpToDate is definitely an alternative to other software updaters like Sumo (see: Software Update Monitoring With SUMO), Radarsync (see: Radarsync checks for driver and application updates ) or Techtracker (see: Cnet Techtracker Checks For Software Updates ).