gHacks technology news » update-checker http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Sun, 08 Nov 2009 22:45:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Software Update Checker Comparison http://www.ghacks.net/2008/05/29/software-update-checker-comparison/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/05/29/software-update-checker-comparison/#comments Thu, 29 May 2008 07:33:34 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=4356 It’s been a while since I’ve compared various software update checkers and I felt that it was time to download and test the old applications and several new ones again for a second comparison. Before I start that I would like to write about the criteria that are important in the test. There are basically three elements that are of importance when looking at software update checkers: The number of updates that have been identified, the number of false positives and the usability of the application.

The number of updates that are found and the false positives play hand in hand obviously. Both parameters are weighted carefully while usability concentrates on the ease of use.

The applications that are part of the comparison are: FileHippo Update Checker, Update Star, App Snap, App Updater, Personal Software Inspector, Sumo and Radarsync.

I began the comparison by installing all software update checkers from the above list running their check once all of them had been installed. This was the easiest way to compare their results, the found software updates. After that I checked the validity of the updates that had been found. Did the list include false positives ? This could include previous versions of applications or applications that have been reported that were not installed on the test system.

Lastly the usability was examined. Was it easy to use the application and download the updates ?

There was only one application with 0 false positives and that was the File Hippo Update Checker. It also detected the most applications that needed an update because of the inclusion of beta updates in the list. It detected six regular updates and four beta updates. The report was displayed on a website with download links to the updates, each update had to be downloaded and installed separately.

Sumo came in second with eight updates that have been discovered during the scan. Four of the updates were updates from a non-commercial version to the latest commercial version. These were marked specifically. Each download was linked to a specific page on the developers website that contained lots of advertisement and links to searches for the application.

Every other updater examined failed the test. Radarsync reported 3 updates of which 2 were false positives, Appsnap discovered 2 of which 1 was a false positive, App Updater found 0 and crashed repeatedly, Update Star found 7 of which 5 were commercial updates and Secunia PSI found 0.

That’s a pretty disappointing result. The only two applications that I can recommend at the moment are File Hippo Update Checker and Sumo. Every other application failed the test.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/05/29/software-update-checker-comparison/feed/ 24 Radarsync checks for driver and application updates http://www.ghacks.net/2008/05/27/radarsync-checks-for-driver-and-application-updates/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/05/27/radarsync-checks-for-driver-and-application-updates/#comments Tue, 27 May 2008 21:47:00 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=4326 Windows is not having the easy command line options to update the installed drivers or applications that Linux has. Many users forget to update their system drivers at all after installing them for the first time. That can be one major cause for problems on the system and it should be mandatory to update the system drivers and applications regularly.

Some applications that check for software updates on a Windows system have already been mentioned in the past here at Ghacks but none of them did check the installed drivers for updates. Radar Sync, discovered at the Download Squad website, checks both the installed applications and drivers for updates.

Radar Sync relies on a database that contains information about applications and drivers which means that it will not detect all programs and devices on a system. The scan itself is well done and catapults Radar Sync to the top of the programs that check for updates. The scan is quick and the button to download all listed updates comes in very handy.

radarsync 2008

The updates can be installed right from the application after downloading them. A click on Actions > Install Update is normally sufficient to install the update. Radar Sync recommends to create a system restore point before installing applications which can be initiated right from the recommendation dialog.

One download failed on my system and a click on the Actions > Get More Info link allowed me to report a bad download link. Downloads are directly from the manufacturers and developers websites which reduces the chance that a download contains malicious files.

I cannot really say much about the detection database because of my new computer. Six updates does not look like much but I do not have that many applications installed yet. One last thing that bothered me was that it told me that there was a new version of Opera. I have the latest Opera 9.5 beta installed and it told me that the version 9.27 was the latest. This means that it did not detect that my Opera version was newer than the one recommended.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/05/27/radarsync-checks-for-driver-and-application-updates/feed/ 7 Check if updates are available for your software http://www.ghacks.net/2007/07/25/check-if-updates-are-available-for-your-software/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/07/25/check-if-updates-are-available-for-your-software/#comments Wed, 25 Jul 2007 07:57:33 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/07/25/check-if-updates-are-available-for-your-software/ I rarely check if updates are available for the majority of softwares that I have installed on my system. The reason behind this is simple. It takes a lot of time to check the websites of the developers – if they are known – and compare versions. I had to check for updates regularly which means that I would be occupied and could not do more important tasks. My estimation would be that it would take roughly between 6 and 10 hours a month to keep all of my software up to date.

The Secunia Personal Software Inspector is checking your system for installed softwares and alerts you when it finds a outdated version. Its main purpose is to check for security vulnerabilities in the applications but it can only report them if an update or fix is available.

A System score is given after the initial scan of the system. I received a somewhat disappointing 76% score mainly due to outdated programs that I no longer use and several applications that were listed four to five times. It reminded me of a few programs like Winamp or Winrar which I no longer used and it did not make much sense to keep them on my system.

A great feature of the Personal Software Inspector is that it provides Direct Download Links and additional information to many applications listed. It seems to work only with the Internet Explorer at the moment and Secunia claims that the software is able to detect more than 4200 applications.

There is however another side that I would like to address: Privacy concerns:

After examining all the files on your local hard drive(s), the collected data is sent to Secunia’s servers, which match the data against the Secunia File Signatures engine (https://psi.secunia.com/) to determine the exact applications installed on your system.

While this does not seem to include personal data it is still a matter of concern to me. I don’t like Microsoft to scan my system for possible software updates and I don’t like anyone else to do the same.

The data sent to Secunia is non-personal data only. The data is generic, standardized, and originates from installed programs on your computer. All data will be deleted automatically no later than 12 months after you terminate using the program or immediately after you cancel your registration.

Twelve months is a long time in my opinion and I’m wondering why they would keep the records for such a long time.

Secunia will not share or sell specific data about individuals with any third parties. Only aggregate statistical which can’t be related directly to any individuals will be published and shared with third parties.

This pretty much means that they sell the collected data as soon as they got rid of any personal information.

If you use Windows Update for instance you surely would not mind at all to use the Personal Software Inspector. Users with paranoia or privacy concerns will surely not use it.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2007/07/25/check-if-updates-are-available-for-your-software/feed/ 2 Check your programs for updates automatically http://www.ghacks.net/2007/04/04/check-your-programs-for-updates-automatically/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/04/04/check-your-programs-for-updates-automatically/#comments Wed, 04 Apr 2007 07:22:59 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/04/04/check-your-programs-for-updates-automatically/ Keeping up with application updates can be a very tedious task even if you have only a handful of them installed on your system. If the software has no update reminder you have to manually visit the developers homepage and see if an update is available. Most users simply do not look for updates actively and use old versions that might have security holes or miss important features that have been implemented in later versions. But there is hope..

update checkerThe FileHippo Update Checker scans your computer for installed applications and compares their version to the latest version hosted at the FileHoppo servers.

It then displays a list of all updates that it found on a website divided into full and beta updates. The version on the local computer and the latest version are mentioned in the list and a link to download the update is next to every entry.

Downloads start immediately if you click on the green download icons next to each application. Great that you do not have to navigate through endless webpages to reach the download.

FileHippo does not scan applications that they do not have in their database or do not provide version information that FileHippo can access.

Many useful free applications are not processed but a test scan on my system found 9 updates for applications and 2 for beta applications. Most have been standard applications like Flash Player, Java Runtime Environment or Nero Burning Rom. Great for a quick lookup. Works on Windows 98+

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