Word association! Quick - What comes to mind? Big…Heavy…Animal(istic)…Vicious fighters? Nope! We’re not gonna talk about big foot stomping chunky wrestlers in little thongy kinda things (I’m sure you’ve got a great visual going now don’t you? Don’t answer - I don’t want to know…) or humongous African animals floating in the river and their pounding charges after safari tourists. We’re gonna talk software update monitoring. Now that’s an exciting topic don’t you think?

Follow up:

Well, the topic does need to be discussed. Keeping your software up to date is important for any number of reasons. First and foremost - Windows! (I’d be really remiss if I didn’t talk about it.) It’s not only for performance - it’s for security. The same goes for other programs like anti-virus, spyware removal and firewall software. Not to mention programs like Java (in which older versions may contain security exploits). It’s also about convenience and features. Many applications you use day in and day out get updated with new features, ones you may not know about. These features can do anything from providing enhanced security, fixing bugs, improving application performance to more intuitive user interfaces and just plain old being easier to use.

For Windows updates you should always visit the Microsoft Windows Update website or turn on Automatic Updates. Critical updates should be installed as soon as possible. Optional updates should be reviewed from time to time and you can choose which of them you’d like to install. You should check for updates often. It’s also a good idea to visit the website of your computer manufacturer periodically. You should check for updated drivers and BIOS updates from time to time. But what about all those other programs you use? Well I have two great suggestions for you:

I’ve been a standing fan of Filehippo’s Update Checker. I run it weekly, and it keeps the majority of the programs I use on a daily basis up to date. It addresses many of the security related programs such as software firewalls, anti-virus programs, popular spyware and malware removal programs, as well as numerous other software applications many people use. You can configure it to see both stable and beta updates. Downloads are done right from the results page after it checks for updates - what could be easier? My guess would be that at least 75-80% of the programs you really use regularly will be covered with this utility. Everything from security to multi-media/music to browsers and instant messaging are covered. But if you want more than this…read on!

Just the other day I decided to try SUMo - Software Update Monitor. I must say it is a nice addition to my growing list of utilities. SUMo scans (and saves the information) for software it finds on your on your machine. When possible, based on file information provided by the manufacturer, it shows you if there are updates available for your software. It does not actually provide the download link for you, although it will display a page where you can check some more frequented download sites, or do a Google search (in addition to finding some other interesting informational statistics about the software). I personally prefer to run the specified program and check for updates from within, rather than doing Google searches to find the appropriate download page (or searching fruitlessly on often confusing download sites).

The items found on Filehippo are generally applicable to most any user. But not necessarily so on SUMo. For instance, many of my HP utilities show an updated version available, but HP does not show I need updates. Point being, don’t go in search of an update just because it exists - make sure it applies to your machine. It may also be that you have an old version of software that you’d have to pay to update. Filehippo doesn’t have this type of information - but SUMo will show them. At least you know what updates are out there, and can choose/check the ones you might be interested in. I have a very old version of Adobe Photoshop Elements I purchased years ago (which still functions well, even on Vista). While my version shows as 2.0 and SUMo tells me something along the lines of 7.0 is available - I have no interest in paying to update to a newer version. The choice is yours - knowledge is power. If it’s a program you use all the time, and absolutely can’t live without - you just might want to know there’s a paid update out there. SUMo won’t distinguish between free and paid - it’s just giving you the information - you still need to do a little legwork on your own.

I thought I was pretty good about keeping my stuff up to date using Filehippo, but with SUMo I found about 23 updates the other night. 10 or so of them either don’t apply to me or I wasn’t going to pay to update the software, but still the 13 I did need were ones I was pleased to know about. I choose to disable all those automatic checking for updates features at startup. I prefer to do them on my own time rather than extend my boot time. So, some programs I don’t use frequently might start to lag behind in updating. While I strongly suggest Filehippo’s Update Checker on a regular basis, from time to time, I think SUMo is a nice little utility to check for updates to programs that might otherwise not be remembered. I’d rather spend a few moments to keep my apps up to date than to decide I want to use a program only to find I have to spend time downloading updates when I really want to be working in the program.

Side note: Whenever you install a newer version of Java, it is recommended you then uninstall any previous versions you may have. Older versions of Java do contain security exploits, and removing them (unless you have something that doesn’t play well with a newer version) is always advisable. The Java cache is a place where more malware is starting to be seen, so it’s really a security precaution. New versions of Java do not over-write or uninstall previous versions of the program - you need to do that yourself.