Required for automatic software updates. Automatic software update or PC software updater

Not many people know about it, but new viruses appear every day. And today they are capable of causing such harm to a computer that it was hard to imagine yesterday. Therefore, each user should be aware of the relevance of protecting their operating system. To keep your Windows safe, it needs to be updated regularly. But if the virus has already settled in your PC, check out and download a free antivirus from our catalog.

The Importance of Windows Updates

If a couple of decades ago Windows 98 was an ideal and, as it was believed, a secure system, now there is no need to talk about it. Microsoft has not released updates for it for a long time. The corporation took a different path, releasing Windows XP, then Vista, later Windows 7, and so on. So-called "patches" are regularly issued to them.

A patch is a specific software package that enhances system security. At the time of release of the operating system, it is safe. But every day, hackers around the world are trying to find more and more vulnerabilities and find them, unexpected failures appear in the system during development, leading to various system problems. Installing scheduled Windows updates in most cases helps to solve these problems.

Windows operating system update

The first step is to turn on automatic updates. To do this, go to the "Control Panel" and find the item "Windows Update" in it.

The next window requires configuration. Select "Settings".

The icon with the checkmark shield has a drop-down list.

It is important that one of the first three items is selected. The best is considered an automatic process, which is recommended by the system.
When choosing the last item, you cannot count on 100% OS security.

After configuring the update settings, click the "OK" button.

The screenshot shows which updates are important and optional. In this example, there are 14 important pieces, and 38 unimportant ones.
Important updates should always be installed. The second depending on the wishes of the user (Administrator).

Software update

The user works on the computer and has fun using various programs and games for this. The problem is that hackers regularly look for holes in installed software. How can this be used against the host of the computer?

For example, the VLC player can play streaming video and audio. Knowing this, an attacker can attack the port used by this program. Therefore, very often various software notifies that an update has appeared. Usually the user is prompted to download it. Also on the download site (official site) there is information about the corrected errors of the previous version and apologies in the new one.

SUMo (Software Updates Monitor)

This small free utility is able to find all sorts of updates for installed programs on your computer.

EXE file opens without installation. The program has a Russian-language intuitive interface.
Before you start working with SUMo, you should understand the settings.

Here you can select the interface language and make some program settings. By default, they are optimally set. Nothing needs to be changed here. Items 2 to 4 must be checked. They make it easier for the user to work with the program.
By clicking on the "Automatically find installed applications" button, the program will start searching for outdated software and updates for it.
In the example, all programs with an exclamation mark require updating. SUMo indicates available new versions. For example, Winrar 3.71.0.0 can upgrade to Winrar 5.31.0.0.

Clicking the Update button will start the update process.

You can also run this procedure in another way, which is shown in the screenshot below.

Two ways to improve system security, make the life of PC users more peaceful and reliable!

Any conscientious software developer monitors the errors that users discover in the process of work, and promptly eliminates them by releasing updates. If there are no significant changes to the program other than fixes, then the new version is usually given an intermediate number, eg "5.1.14". This numbering allows the user to decide whether to update the program or not. If the application is stable, it is hardly worth spending your time searching for and installing a newer interim release. However, when the program closes with an error or conflicts with the hardware, then an update is simply necessary. Another reason to check for updates regularly is the issue of security. If the program stores sensitive user data (for example, a password storage utility, browser, antivirus, or electronic payment application), it should be updated as often as possible. The number of installed applications on a computer can be in the tens or even hundreds. For most of them, updates are released regularly. And even if you follow a simple logic and update applications only when necessary, you can not always notice the release of a fresh version. It's good if the program has a function to automatically check for updates at each launch or at a specified frequency. But if it is not there, constantly monitoring the release of new versions takes a lot of time, because you need to regularly visit the official website of the program and look for an update in the appropriate section.

In most cases, the developers of a particular program offer to subscribe to the newsletter from the manufacturer. This service can be provided on the official website of the program and is offered during its installation. This option is convenient, but not without drawbacks. Emails with notifications of this kind are often identified by anti-spam protection as advertising junk, so finding the right email in the spam folder is again a waste of time. In addition, in addition to information about updates, really useless messages can come to the mailbox, for example, about the presentation of a new utility or about discounts on purchasing programs. However, there is a simple but very effective way to solve the problem of finding and installing software updates - using special applications to monitor new software versions.

Update Checker 1.032

Developer: FileHippo.com
Distribution size: 154 kb
Spreading: free This project was implemented by the popular online software directory - FileHippo.com. Update Checker is a tiny client that allows you to use the online service of this portal. Update Checker does not have an interface as such - it uses a browser window to display information. In order for the program to run, the system must have the Microsoft .NET Framework installed. After running Update Checker, it searches the system for a list of installed applications, and then sends a request to the FileHippo.com website. By comparing the versions of programs from the list with those in the catalog, the service generates a list of obsolete programs, indicating a download link next to each. On the program list page, you can see the latest version of each application, as well as the one installed on your computer. A separate list on the page shows beta versions of popular programs.

SUMo 2.6

Developer: KC Softwares
Distribution size: 1.5 MB
Spreading: free This utility was created by the same developer who made a lot of other useful utilities, including such well-known ones as VideoInspector, KFK, AVIToolbox and others. The somewhat unusual name of the utility - SUMo - is actually an abbreviation and stands for Sofware Updates Monitor. SUMo allows you to search for updates on the Internet both for a single application and for all programs that are installed on the system. If you need to manually check the availability of an update for a particular utility, just drag its executable EXE file into the working window, then select a new item in the list and select the "Check" command in the context menu of the program. Similarly, you can "open" DLLs and ActiveX files in the program.

SUMo can also scan for installed applications. The scan will collect the installed version number and compare it with the latest available version. Scanning can be performed in two modes - normal and advanced. The second option allows you to more accurately determine the list of installed software, but it will take more time to use it. In the list of detected installed software, you can see the current version number and the name of the developer company. If the program detects that the installed application can be updated, the phrase "Update available" will be displayed in the "Update" column of the list of checked software, and the update number will also be shown.

For clarity, each program in the list is marked with its own icon, which makes it possible, by taking a quick look at the list of applications, to quickly determine which of the installed utilities are updated, for which it is not necessary to update, and for which vice versa it is strongly recommended. Downloading updates is not very convenient - in order to download an update, you need to perform several actions. If you select the command in the context menu of the program "Update" or use the button of the same name in the SUMo window, the utility will redirect you to the project page, where several links will be generated. Contrary to logic, these are not download links, but search queries, mainly for various large software directories. As a result, a somewhat strange picture emerges - Sofware Updates Monitor detects the presence of an update for the application, but the user often has to look for the update distribution package on his own. If the list of installed programs contains those for which you do not need to search for updates, you can create a list of applications that are prohibited for monitoring.

AppSnap 1.3.3

Developer: Ganesh Viswanathan
Distribution size: 5.2 MB
Spreading: free To monitor new versions of applications, AppSnap uses its own database. Unfortunately, the number of supported programs is not very large, so it is possible that in the "Installed" section you will not see even half of the software available on your computer. The fact is that the program searches the system only for those applications for which it can show the presence of fresh versions. This is a very big drawback, although, in fairness, it should be noted that the small list of programs for which AppSnap can track updates is well chosen. Indeed, it contains the most common utilities - 7-zip, Winamp, Firefox, uTorrent, Opera and other popular programs (a few hundred in total).

You can download and install updates directly from the AppSnap window. During the download process, a process status bar is displayed on the screen.

Replenishment of the database of programs, the developers have entrusted to users. So, in order for the utility to check the update of a program that is not in the database in future versions, the "unknown application" must be entered manually by filling out the appropriate form on the AppSnap official website.

UpdateStar Premium 4

Developer: Update Star
Distribution size: 4.8 MB
Spreading: shareware The UpdateStar interface is presented as a tabbed ribbon, each containing its own settings and tools. The program has multilingual support, including Russian. In order to make monitoring updates as convenient as possible, the developers of the program endowed it with a number of features. First, UpdateStar users will not need to search the web for software distributions, as the utility redirects to a page with download links. Secondly, the program has one very convenient function - sorting applications according to different criteria. Among these criteria are, for example, "Security level". This setting, displayed as a set of asterisks, indicates how sensitive data privacy is to the application. Obviously, programs with a higher priority (with more stars) should be upgraded first.

By determining the software installed on the computer and providing information about the programs (the latest version number, application security rating, etc.), UpdateStar focuses on its own online database. Despite the huge number of applications indexed by this utility (about three hundred thousand various items - from graphic editors and anti-virus programs to professional packages for application development, engineering design, etc.), errors and inaccuracies are not ruled out in the process of work, which can be related as with erroneous entries in the system registry, and with the fact that the database may not have a record about the found application. But even in this case, UpdateStar allows you to work around the problems that have arisen. So, for example, a program that the program did not identify can be marked and a request made to the UpdateStar developers about it. After some time, it will already be included in the database for monitoring updates, the volume of which, by the way, is constantly increasing. The accuracy of determining installed applications is quite high, but still, before starting a system scan, it will not be out of place to use the integrated registry cleaner tool. If, as a result of incorrect removal of an application, unnecessary entries remain in the system registry, this tool will allow you to remove them. To be safe, before deleting "junk" entries in the registry, UpdateStar can make a backup copy of the deleted data. In this case, when unplanned errors occur, you can import the data into the registry, returning to the previous state.

In order to keep track of the release of new versions of programs, it is not at all necessary that they all be installed on this computer. You can check the availability of fresh releases using a pre-exported list of programs. This list can be saved in UpdateStar's native format or as an HTML file. If, say, the rating of updates used by the program by default does not match the user's ideas about which programs should be updated first, he can use an additional criterion - his own rating. By setting each program to its own priority, in the future you can quickly determine which of the programs you use should be updated. It takes some time to compile your own rating. If you're too lazy to do this, you can simply focus on the average application rating, which is defined as the average user priority data in UpdateStar. The program also presents statistics on installed applications in the form of a visual diagram. UpdateStar keeps a history of updates. In the program, you can view statistics that contain data on the installation time of a particular application.

After starting UpdateStar, it analyzes the system and determines the versions of installed programs. By creating a list of installed software on the "Programs" tab, next to each application whose version is outdated, the utility generates a link to download a more recent release. After clicking on this link, a browser window will open, which will provide detailed information about the selected program - screenshots of the application's working window, a link to the developer's official website, training videos demonstrating the program's capabilities (if any), and, of course, a direct link to download the new version. UpdateStar can be automatically downloaded along with the system and gives you the ability to run a scheduled update check. The built-in task scheduler allows you to automatically monitor updates daily, every week or every month, at a specific time. To download information from the Internet, the program can work with the specified proxy server settings, as well as use a secure SSL connection.

Conclusion

At first glance, the SUMo program looks the most attractive. It contains all the tools you need to quickly search for and download software updates, while it has a Russian interface and, importantly, is distributed free of charge. However, there is a "fly in the ointment" - an inconvenient download of new versions of programs that have been discovered. If you close your eyes to the fact that UpdateStar Premium is a commercial product, of all programs for automatically detecting updates, it has a slight advantage. This is the only program that allows you to monitor application updates automatically on a schedule. Unfortunately, most UpdateStar features are only available for the commercial Premium version. For example, the free version does not have a registry cleaner, it is not possible to create a list of programs, only the most significant updates for applications are shown, and checking for new versions is much less common. And yet, even the free version of UpdateStar can make things easier for many. As for AppSnap, this program can only be useful for a collection of "emergency" flash drives. Some users believe that it is not worth installing a new version of the program if the previous release works without problems and suits in all respects. This definitely makes sense, because, as mentioned above, most intermediate versions do not contain fundamental changes, but only eliminate inaccuracies in the application. Well, as to whether or not to install a new release - this is up to everyone to decide on their own. The main thing to remember is that "new" does not mean "better".

Hello dear visitors. In this tutorial, I'll show you a couple of ways to update all the programs on your computer quickly and easily.

Some users will ask me a question, Why update software at all?? Everything is very simple.

New versions fix various bugs and add new features. Therefore, I do not see anything wrong with the new versions! On the contrary, if an update has appeared, then the developers have done a good job!

You can update programs on your computer either manually, opening each one individually, or automatically using a special program. Let's take a look at both!

Update apps with FileHippo App Manager

Using a handy program File Hippo App Manager you can update all the programs installed on our computer in a semi-automatic mode. Now I will tell you how to do it right.

First of all, download the FileHippo App Manager from the official website and install it.

Immediately after installing and launching the program, it will prompt you to select the operating mode. Select the third item I'll do it manually (I will do it manually) and click OK.

Immediately after launch FileHippo App Manager will scan all our programs and will show on the Updates tab, the software that can be updated. In my case, there are 17 programs.

To update any program, there is a Download and Run button opposite it.

A WARNING! Do not try to update all programs. This is especially true for paid programs that were activated by a found key on the Internet. If you update such a program, then the activation may fail. Be careful!

As you can see, I have 17 updates, but I will not install everything completely. Let me update just a few programs.

For example, I have updates for the CCleaner program. This is a great program for . To update it, I click Download and Run and wait a few seconds until the latest version is downloaded.

Upon completion, I will be prompted to upgrade by installing a new version of this program.

In the same way, I updated some other applications.

This program is convenient because it allows you to see all applications for which updates are available in one single window. But of course, you can also update programs manually, let's look at this method.

Updating programs manually

Any program can be updated manually. Of course, the process in different utilities may differ slightly, but the essence is the same everywhere and let's look at a few examples.

To update the Google Chrome browser, click on the tool button and in the menu that opens, select Help - About the Google Chrome browser.

The program is already checking for updates, and if there is one, it will automatically install them and ask you to restart the browser.

To update the Mozilla browser, you need to open it by pressing the Alt key and go to the menu that appears Help, then About Firefox.

If there is an update, it will download and install.

To update Avast antivirus, you need to click on the gear.

Then open the Update tab and at the bottom in the section Program click the Refresh button.

To update Skype, run this program and click the Help menu - Check for updates.

To update uTorrent click the Help menu - Check for updates.

Like this update programs manually. Apply these tips and update the programs you need to use the latest developments.

That's all, I wish you good luck!

As part of its efforts to introduce Windows to the mobile device market, Microsoft once created the Windows Store, a single source of content for the operating system, where users can install all the software products they need in a comprehensive manner. Today, the Windows Store is the place to install minimalist apps, games, and extensions for the Microsoft Edge browser. Only. Microsoft's ambitious plans to turn the Windows Store into a single web market with a huge assortment, where users could also get acquainted with desktop programs (just get acquainted, but download via a link from the developer's website), alas, so far they have remained a project, not translated into reality. So far, the Store is not a viewing platform for software that works with the desktop environment of the system, and it is still scattered all over the Internet - on the websites of developer companies, soft portals, torrent trackers, etc. All these resources have to be accessed not only once to download program installers, but also periodically to update them, if this process is not provided automatically by the developers. Below we will talk about updating third-party Windows programs - how often they need to be updated, how to do it manually and using special tools.

1. Why and how often do you need to update third-party software?

Updating third-party software is less useful than updating Windows itself, but in some cases this process can have a significant impact on the performance of programs or their individual functions. And some old programs that are now not supported by developers may not even be installed on modern versions of Windows, because by default they do not provide for the activity of the software platforms necessary for their operation. For example, as is the case with . In software updates, developers fix bugs, eliminate conflicts with the hardware, adapt to changes in the operating system and software environments on which these programs operate, and add new features.

How often do you need to update third-party software? Versions of programs and games are often represented by a sequence of numbers like "xx.xx", for example, Counter-Strike 1.6. Programs and games may have intermediate versions that have a sequence of numbers like "xx.xx.xx", for example, CCleaner v5.24.5841. Intermediate versions, as a rule, do not contain any significant changes, except for minor fixes that are unlikely to be noticed by a wide audience of users. If the program or game works fine, you don't have to waste time updating to each intermediate version. An exception can only be programs such as antiviruses, password managers, clients of banking and payment systems, etc.

Major updates to large software packages, their creators are trying to turn into a significant event to attract the attention of the masses. Such software packages may have readable and memorable serial version numbers, for example, Corel VideoStudio Ultimate X10, or contain the year of release in the name, for example, Acronis True Image 2017. You need to deal with this kind of software separately, since it may turn out that a new version requires purchasing a new license key.

2. Manually update third-party software

Software that does not provide automatic updates may simply offer a check for new versions. In desktop programs, this is usually the last section of the Help menu. If there is not even such an opportunity, in the same help section of the menu you can find the address of the official website of the program, visit it and check if the latest version has appeared.

3. Updating third-party software using special programs

To simplify the procedure for tracking and installing updates, users who want to have only up-to-date software on their computer can use special programs. Such programs usually scan the system, identify the software installed in it, and if there are fresh versions, they offer to download them and install them on the system. And some programs even examine non-system drives for updates to portable software. The system for delivering a fresh distribution kit for different programs for updating third-party software is arranged differently. Some can download the distribution kit of the latest software versions directly from the official websites of the developers, and some update the software using some kind of single database on the Internet (usually a database of large-scale soft portals). The latter usually offer the user a larger list of support for updated software, but, alas, even they are not a panacea, because there are a lot of programs and games for Windows.

Consider below the three programs for updating third-party Windows software.

3.1. Kaspersky Software Updater

The free utility Kaspersky Software Updater from the eminent creator of anti-virus products - Kaspersky Lab - was created to promote paid software, but in the good old tradition of delivering quality software products, regardless of the terms of their payment. The utility was created on the principle of "Take it and use it", it has a user-friendly interface and clear controls. Quality often makes friends with minimalism, so the creators of the utility found it necessary to limit themselves to only a hundred supported programs from among those in demand by a wide audience. Immediately after installing Kaspersky Software Updater, we can start searching for updates to the software available in the system.

Kaspersky Software Updater

Based on the scan results in the utility window, we will get a list of programs for which there are new versions. And then we can start the process of updating each of the detected programs by pressing the "Update" button. The update process will be carried out automatically.

Kaspersky Software Updater

Other features of Kaspersky Software Updater include a batch update of all detected programs in one click, adding individual programs to the list of exceptions (they will no longer participate in scanning), selecting the update search mode (all in a row or only essential ones), automatically launching a scan according to a configured schedule. Kaspersky Software Updater registers itself at startup and monitors the appearance of new versions of the software available in the system in the background.

3.2. File Hippo App Manager

FileHippo App Manager is a program that works in conjunction with a single database of software installers, it is the client software of the FileHippo.Com soft portal. The program can be used for free. The frequency of scanning for new versions of the software available in the system is configured immediately when installing the FileHippo App Manager. The program is loaded with Windows, runs in the background, and notifies you of updates to the software available in the system with a message from the system tray.

After scanning the system in the FileHippo App Manager window, we will see a list of programs for which new versions have been found. With the Download & Run button, you can download new versions and start installing them into the system.

File Hippo App Manager

The downloaded distributions of new versions of the FileHippo App Manager software are stored in a special folder. If necessary, its path, which is set on the C:\ drive by default, can be changed so that the distributions are stored, for example, on one of the non-system partitions.

File Hippo App Manager

3.3. SoftSalad Monitor

SoftSalad Monitor is a client program for the Softsalad.Ru soft portal. Other client programs work with it, but SoftSalad Monitor has the advantage of being free to use. True, during the installation process, the program must be carefully monitored so that companion programs are not installed into the system along with it.

Like other programs for automatic software updates, SoftSalad Monitor is installed at startup during installation and performs its work in the background. After installing the program, a system scan will automatically start to search for new versions of the software available in the system. In the scan results, next to each of the programs in the list, possible actions will be available - downloading a new version, ignoring for the future and going to the Softsalad.Ru page with a description of the program. Downloading new versions is possible in batch mode.

The process of installing new software versions is launched directly from the SoftSalad Monitor interface.

If necessary, you can change the preset storage path for the downloaded distribution in the program settings.

SoftSalad Monitor

Of the three participants in the review, this is the most functional solution. SoftSalad Monitor scans the system for obsolete versions of not only installed programs, but also portable programs. SoftSalad Monitor is also a directory for downloading and installing new software. In the "Popular" tab, we will find several thematic collections of the most popular software. And to search for specific programs, you can use the internal search engine SoftSalad Monitor.

Have a great day!