Update Notifier is an alternative software updates checker which can be installed or run as a portable application. The program uses a clean interface that displays the installed version of scanned software programs, the latest known version in the database and a link to a website from where the application can be downloaded in case a newer version is available. The results were correct for all tested applications which is something that several of the previously tested software updater failed in.

A click on the download button will open the website of the software developer that contains information about the application. It takes another two clicks to start the download that is available directly from the same website. There is unfortunately no direct link to the website of the software developer itself to verify the findings or to download the software from there.

Update Notifier can be configured to filter the results list. Filters include the listing of only commercial or free software as well as listings based on the type of update available. The program can also be pointed at a folder on the local computer system containing portable applications to check those for updates as well.

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My conclusion was that although Digsby is a fantastic messaging client with good design and features, the 70mb+ RAM usage became just too much to put up with.

Only a few days ago however I was excited to see that the Digsby team has released a new alpha build for testing purposes. Apparently the developers have spent the last few months completely rewriting the underlying architecture of Digsby in order to bring RAM usage down to an acceptable level.

“We completely reworked the architecture to use less memory and also improved the memory management by releasing objects when they are no longer needed.  We also hunted down and eliminated numerous memory leaks.  All in all, these changes lower Digsby’s RAM usage by over 50%. It should now hover in the 20MB – 50MB range depending on how many accounts you have and what you are doing at the moment.”

That’s not all, the Digsby blog post also describes these other changes:

Performance:
User interface should be performing between 2 and 4 times faster then before. That includes things such as menu re-drawing and buttons etc. Promise for future builds to focus on GUI response time, CPU utilization and the like.

Firewalls and Proxy Servers:
IM timeouts where another annoying issue with previous Digsby builds and this one has introduced multiple automatic attempts at connecting through various ports.

Crash Reporter:
This is still a product under development and bug-catching is crucial, this build introduces a ‘crash reporter’ for helping the team locate all the rare and tricky bugs. “The major changes in architecture in this build may introduce a couple of new crash causing bugs and that is one of the reasons why we want to test the build before releasing it to everyone.”

Bug Fixes + Enhancements:
Numerous bug fixes and various enhancements, the full list will be provided with the public release.

I got between 15 (idle) – 50mb with MSN, 2 Hotmail accounts, Gtalk, Facebook + Chat, MySpace and Twitter all running. Some people are reporting Digsby running at as low as 10-15mb, although I have no idea how many accounts they use.

Such was my dedication that I sat here for 4 hours downloading this new build over my crippled Internet connection at around 3kbs and enduring two time-outs halfway through.

It was worth it though, check it out!

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Autopatcher has been closed down by Microsoft. There is an alternative, a great one that can be used instead. It is called c’t Offline Updater. It supports Microsoft Windows 2000, Windows XP, windows Server 2003, 64-bit editions of XP and Server 2003 as well as Windows Vista. Besides the operating systems it also supports Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003 and Office 2007. As you can see from the screenshot below lots of different languages are supported as well.

The user has the option to exclude service packs and to create iso images, either one CD iso for every operating system or Office edition or one DVD iso that contains all the patches. A click on start begins the download process which can take some time. When the download finishes you find the created iso(s) in the /iso subdirectory.

You can then burn the iso and start it directly in Windows. Several options are presented when you execute UpdateInstaller.exe. The script asks if you want to create backups, install Internet Explorer 7, automatically reboot and recall or show the log file.

A click on start begins the update process. The Offline Update is an excellent way to download all patches for your operating system in one go.

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The only way was until recently to visit the websites that host the applications manually and check for new versions. Some offered mailing lists or RSS feeds which could be used to stay informed without visiting the website right away.

So called Software Updaters could be the solution. There are actually quite a few programs out there that scan your computer for applications and display a list of outdated ones after the scan. But which one finds the most applications, which has the database that is updated most frequently and which actually works ?

That’s what I’m going to find out today with the battle of the software updaters. The applications that I tried are:

AppGet
Appupdater
File Hippo Update Checker
Secunia Personal Software Inspector
Sumo
Update Star

AppGet:

AppGet was the only software that did not check for updates. I’m not sure if I missed a button somewhere but I was not able to check for updates manually nor find a button to do that automatically. It did find more applications than any other updater but since it did not find any updates it’s pretty useless to me.

The software is Beta which could be the reason but this is the main function of a software updater next to scanning for software. What I liked is that software versions are reported to the central database which means that the database gets updated during a scan for applications.

Appupdater:

The scan found 79 applications of which 16 had to he updated. A button do download all updates and to install all updates was offered as well as options to uninstall the applications. Most applications did not have a (single) download button and false positives where reported. Firefox 2.0.0.11 was in the list although that was the installed version on the computer.

The option to download updates for every installed application independently is missing and the information panel is not showing the current version of the application that it asks you to download.

File Hippo Update Checker:

When you execute the File Hippo application it scans your computer and displays a list of updates on the File Hippo homepage. File Hippo is only scanning for applications that are available on their website which could explain why it did only find 18 applications while Sumo and Update Star found almost twice as much.

All updates have to be downloaded separately using the interface, a way to upload all at once would have been great. I like the way the information are presented, the name of the application the installed version, the latest version and the size of it are displayed.

File Hippo does not take into account licensed software. I have Nero 7 installed for instance and it displays that the latest version of Nero 8 was available. It is however not possible to update unless I would pay for the update.

Secunia Personal Software Inspector:

The Secunia Personal Software Inspector is more a security application than a software updater. It scans your computer for insecure applications and displays them in a list. What puzzles me a bit is that several applications have been listed up to three times in the list.

The newest Beta version of Opera was not recognized as well and I was told to update it. Several buttons are directly accessible in that list, a button to download the latest version, to display information, to open the folder and to rescan the application. It’s a vulnerability scanner however and does not find many free and Open Source applications.

Sumo:

Sumo was one of the two applications that found twice as many updates as all the other tested applications. One reason however could be that it did split components of one application. It did find updates for Nero, Nero Backitup and Nero Home for instance which could all be updated with one update. It did have the same problem that File Hippo had, that it suggested to update to Nero 8 while I was still using Nero 7.

Updates cannot be downloaded directly. If you select a file from the list and click on Get Update a page on the Sumo homepage will be loaded showing statistics of the application, that is how many users are using which version of it. The website offers to search for updates at Major Geeks, File Forum and Google. Direct Download links would make this application way better and are really missing.

Update Star:

If I had to choose the visually most appealing application it would be Update Star. It did find the most updates either, the list can be sorted to only display older programs or include unknown versions or ignored programs as well. Most entries have a download link next to their name, current version and installed version.

Download links lead directly to the programs homepage. There is unfortunately no update all button available which means that you have to click on each download button, visit the homepage, download and install the application and repeat the process until you have updated all applications.

Update Star is as well suggesting to update Nero 7 to Nero 8 which is not possible without purchasing the new version.

Conclusion:

If I would have to choose only one application I would choose the Update Star. It delivers most updates, has a clean way of displaying them in a list and links directly to the authors homepage. A button to download all would have been nice though and a way to disable the scan of commercial applications.

AppGet did not work unfortunately and I will take a look at it when the author is updating the current version.

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This time I found 16 updated applications that I have written earlier at Ghacks about. Some great softwares such as Opera, Mediecoder and doPDF have been updated and are probably worth the update. Please keep in mind that some of the softwares here on the list are alpha or beta versions which means that you should be cautious to update the software on your computer.

• BSPlayer 2.24.954 – Movie player./li>
• CodecInstaller 2.6.3 – Find out which codecs have been used to create a movie.
• doPDF 5.3.231 – PDF converter.
• DDVDFab Decrypter 3.2.0.0 – copy and remove protections from DVDs
• FileZilla 3.0.1 – FTP client.
• FlashGet 1.9.6 – Download manager
• GIMP 2.4.0 RC3 – Image manipulation software.
• JLC’s Internet TV 1.1 Beta 6 – Watch free Internet TV channels using this client.
• MediaCoder 0.6.0.3880 – Universal media transcoder.
• MusicBrainz Picard 0.9.0alpha14 – tag your music collection.
• Notepad++ 4.3 – Notepad replacement with syntax highlighting.
• Opera 9.50 Build 9542 Alpha – New alpha version of Opera.
• Process Monitor v1.23 – Advanced System Monitoring.
• Rapget 1.39 – Download manager for sites such as Rapidshare and Megaupload.
• Speedbit Video Accelerator 2.1.9 Beta – Stream videos faster and smoother.
• XdN Tweaker 0.8.8.2 – tweak Microsoft Windows.

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As usual the updates overwrites all Firefox files without interfering with custom files and settings.

One critical security issue has been fixed, the other ones were high (1), moderate (3) and low (2). Just make sure you update as soon as possible and everything should be sorted out fine.

The languages that have been added are Afrikaans, Belarusian, Georgian and Kurdish. They are currently in beta phase and not available from the main Firefox download page.

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To summarize the procedure. You load the Vista DVD, choose not to enter a product key when it prompts for one and continue the installation by choosing the right Vista edition. This will install a 30 day trial version of Vista. Run the setup again, this time from the now fully working Vista.

Type in your product key and choose a custom (advanced) installation when asked. This simply means that Windows Vista will be installed again on your system, this time with the right product key. Delete the windows.old directory afterwards which contains the files from the first installation.

Is it a loophole ? Yes it is. Everyone can now use Vista Update DVDs to install Windows Vista without having the operating system at hand that has to be used to update.

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Some users who are experiencing bugs or are concerned about security might want to have the updated version as soon as possible to fix bugs and security holes as soon as possible. The following link is to an ftp site that offers firefox 2.0.1 for all supported operating systems and languages.

If you want to be fast go get it know, otherwise wait one more day and get it the regular way. If you are interested about the fixes in this version check out the mozillazine website which lists more than 150 fixes to firefox 2.0. Of note is that 42 bugs that crashed firefox, 3 memory leaks and 4 privacy related bugs have been fixed.

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• support for additional sound codecs such as ogg and flac
• support for games such as Doom, Sokoban and Sudoku
• support for applications like calculators, battery related and text editors
• video support (yes even for ipod nanos 1st gen for instance)
• Gameboy emulator

Installing Rockbox is not as difficulty as it sounds. Take a look at the manual pages which contains all the information you need for all supported mp3 players. Again, you should be very careful before you proceed. Everything is explained in detail and it should not be that much of a problem to install the new firmware. The rockbox forums are also a great way to have any remaining questions answered before making the changes.

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