Milouz Market: find, download and install software updates on Windows
Making sure that the software running on your Windows PC is up to date can be a daunting task. The main reason for that is that Windows does not offer any functionality to keep third-party programs up to date.
While Microsoft changed that for apps in Windows 8, there is still no built-in solution in sight that would make the change for desktop software as well.
This means that you rely on automatic updates if developers have added the feature to their programs, manual checks for updates, or third-party update checkers that scan for known software and compare the installed version with the most recent one.
Milouz Market is a new program that can check for updates. It concentrates on popular software such as Skype, OneDrive, uTorrent, WinSCP or KeePass which is the right approach if you have limited resources.
After you have installed the application and fired it up for the first time, it runs a scan automatically and displays its findings afterwards in the program interface.
It sorts programs in the interface, displaying programs with updates at the top and afterwards the applications that were not detected on the computer system.
For each program, its name, size and category, as well as the installed version and available version are highlighted. All programs with updates are listed with a light blue background which makes identification even easier.
A click on a table header sorts the software listing in a different way, for instance alphabetically or by size, and there is a search that you can use to find a program of interest in the list.
Another option that you have is to use the filter button to hide programs from the listing, for instance all applications that are not installed on the PC.
The buttons on the right provide you with options to delete an installed program, to download the update for it, or to display more information about it.
Programs that are not installed can be downloaded and installed with a click as well.
The updating part is probably the most interesting. The new versions get downloaded automatically by Milouz Market and depending on whether the app supports silent updating or not, installed automatically in the background.
It is possible to speed up this operation by clicking on the update all softs button at the top which will download and install all updates for programs that updates have been found for.
A click on parameters displays the preferences. Here you can switch from only taking release versions into account to beta and alpha versions, limit the download bandwidth of the application, or disable silent setups so that you can follow the update installation process directly.
Verdict
Milouz Market is a useful program. It supports more than 200 popular programs which may not look as much but since it is concentrating on popular programs, it should find many programs on the user system.
Support for portable versions is lacking right now, something that the developer may want to consider adding to the program as it will improve its use for users who prefer to use portable programs.
The option to install programs that are not found is an interesting one that will certainly have its uses in some situations.
Have to say there’s a lot of free alternates listed in this post, here’s what I have used over the years:
SUMo and DUMo- Software and Driver Update Monitor http://www.kcsoftwares.com/?home
Secunia Personal (PSI) – Software Update http://secunia.com/vulnerability_scanning/personal/
FileHippo Update Checker – Software Updater http://www.filehippo.com/updatechecker/
DriverMax – Driver Update’s scan and update drivers http://www.innovative-sol.com/drivermax/
SlimWare Utilities – Clean, Optimize & Update Drivers https://www.slimwareutilities.com/slimcleaner.php
Thanks for the Tutorial Martin and the community for the other Alternates
PhoneyVirus
Hi
Just thought I would throw in some alternatives, which work quiet well for me. I will never be as dedicated / finicky as ilev , but some effort is better than none.
It is the ease with which these programs operate, that justifies their installation, as well as good results and pleasant GUI.
For Software Updates I use ” Glarysoft Software Update ” part of Glarysoft Utilities Pro, but available for free at http://www.glarysoft.com/software-update/
For Driver Updates I use ” Iobit Driver Booster ” available for free at http://www.iobit.com/driver-booster.php
Regards
Dennis Robinson
Media Review
This free software updater will scan your PC and will inform you if it finds a software that hasn’t been updated.You will find all the necessary information about the update and you will get a link to update your software to the latest version.
ilovefreesoftware
Customer Review
“I like Software Update. Never go to search and check for updates any more. Software Update is really friendly to tell me whether there is a new version and give me the link to download. It saves me a lot of time.”
Patricia
Media Review
“Updating a driver through Driver Booster is an entirely in-app experience.”
“Driver Booster, from IObit, promises an easier solution with its most advanced driver update technology by acting as an all-in-one command center. All of your drivers are listed in the app’s interface, making it a super easy process to update drivers. Downloading and installing drivers with this driver updater is a cinch and often takes just minutes (or less).” – MakeUseOf
@ – BBB [ https://www.ghacks.net/2014/07/01/milouz-market-find-download-install-software-updates-windows/#comment-2261884 ]
I dislike the trend that Adobe and other software developers have taken of providing on-line only installers
for given pieces of software (particularly Adobe, I find it really hard to find full off-line installers for their software plug-ins).
Having full off-line installers of software is convenient when you want to update the programs of a computer that
does not have access to an internet connection or whose internet connection is very slow, they also serve as
a good backup for when your programs decide to ####-up.
File Hippo displays change logs (if the developer makes them) and lets users post comments; someone always posts the URL for downloading the full Skype program.
Here are some links you may find useful:
http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-full
Flash Redistribution site (full installers without Adobe DLM)
http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/distribution3.html
OR
IE:
http://download.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/licensing/win/install_flash_player_14_active_x.exe
Non-IE:
http://download.macromedia.com/get/flashplayer/current/licensing/win/install_flash_player_14_plugin.exe
—> playing the game: when v15 comes out, change …_14… in the URL to …_15…
Shockwave Player
http://get.adobe.com/shockwave/otherversions/
(download full installers here; IE shows IE + Non-IE/plugin versions, Non-IE browsers show Non-IE/plugin versions only)
Adobe Air – direct download
http://get.adobe.com/air/
I am currently using FileHippo, which is a nice piece of software, however, it only accounts for a certain number of programs
that I use on the computer that is why I also use Software Informer which accounts for a much broader library of programs,
encompassing not only freeware (like FileHippo does) but also paidware as well.
The new Software Informer client now updates all programs directly through the client itself, what I do not appreciate about
this new way of doing things is due to the client only temporarily downloading the software package solely so that it can be
installed which is different to the way the old client would function, formally, the client would direct the user to a dedicated
Software Informer web-page for that software where a full off-line installer could be downloaded, the new client may be
an added convenience to people who simply want to update their program software, but it is an added hassle to people
like myself who have the same exact program installed on multiple terminals, I would prefer to download a single
off-line installer and then port that to all the terminals that would benefit from that update rather than having to update
all the terminals individually via the client which would simply be a waste of bandwidth and time for me.
Luckily though, Software Informer does display a little pop-up window in the Notification Area of the task bar
that contain hyper-links to the Software Informer web-pages where full off-line program installation packages
can be downloaded. A nice touch about Software Informer is that you can invoke the last update pop-up
notification that you may have missed.
Some of the other update notifiers that I have also tried are Scunia PSI (didn’t work for some reason), Sumo (I can’t
remember what it was about this software that I didn’t like, all I know is that it is no longer installed on the system,
which for me personally is enough justification for me not to use it), I tried ninite.com (I didn’t like this software due to
aforementioned reasons).
In closing, I wish there was a really good update notifier that could incorporate the libraries of both FileHippo
and Software Informer, a driver updater would be rather nice too.
That software looks like it’s made for Windows 95. Sorry, but ugly software like that will never enter my system. So far the best looking and most functional software like this is Software Informer. The recent GUI updates are pretty slick.
What about ninite.com
Bart
Never auto-update applications on Windows.
I use portable Sumo to check what’s new and download the updates when needed.
A lot of those 200 programs include software that allready have an auto update function.
On the screenshot I can allready see 3 out of 10 that have this function that I know of because I never used 6 of them.
so only 1 of the 4 that i know does not have this function.
I the users have disabled the auto update for java & adobe, why would they use this ?
One reason for using this can be that the native auto-update implementation checks only occasionally for updates.
It’s like FileHippo Update Check (which is according to me the best)
Looks like another clone or fork from secunia PSI, sumo, ninite and updatestar. So there is nothing special about this tool. I still not understand why some developers not integrate a autoupdater solution and force the user to download an update if there are some critical holes.
How does it compare to Secunia PSI – is it better, worse, about the same…? I used that in the past, but it didn’t cover all the software (at first I was sure it checks the whole list of installed programs or contents of Program Files, but it turned out it only compares software according to their database).
I think you’re mistaken on the purpose of Secunia PSI.
PSI will only notify you if there are known security issues with software, or when it is out of date.
This implies that new versions of software might be released but as long as no CVE-report has been filed for the older version PSI will not bother you. Also, how many of the smaller software programs indicate when a version is not longer supported? If such notion does not exist, PSI will not tell you that particular piece of software is out-of-date.
So in short PSI aims to keep your PC vulnerability free, not up to date.