Download of the Week: Secunia PSI

User Comments: 35

1. October 29, 2009 6:32 PM
   Obakemono said:

   I'll give it a try this weekend. I love finding these freeware programs that are useful on TS.

   Reply
2. October 29, 2009 7:37 PM
   

   Darth Shiv said:

   Interesting idea. Wonder how well supported it is?

   Reply
3. October 29, 2009 7:57 PM
   Zedster said:

   Interesting little program. It found 4 Flash player problems - versions 7 - 10 (I didn't even know that I had version 7!) and Quicktime. Once I applied the solution, all was OK. Cool.

   Reply
4. October 29, 2009 8:44 PM
   kimsland, Ex-TechSpotter, said:

   Secunia PSI > Advanced > Settings > PSI Settings

   Remove the tick: "Start the Secunia PSI on boot"

   Mine was running at a whopping 40+Meg of Ram

   Generally the program is quite good though

   Reply
5. October 29, 2009 9:28 PM
   Guest said:

   This software has been around for a while now..

   It's paranoid BTW

   Reply
6. October 29, 2009 9:34 PM
   

   treeski said:

   I feel tempted to give this software a try, but ultimately... it's just another bit of security that bogs down my machine. I haven't had any serious or even minor security problems (that I am aware of) in ages, so I think I'm doing a pretty good job taking care of my machine by myself.

   Reply
7. October 29, 2009 9:43 PM
   zaidpirwani said:

   I just want to say, Been there, Done that.....and then un-installed it, I don't think I need to install another software on my computer just so that it may alert me to install more

   No need for this in any actual home or office environment, too many nags, memory usage and the update process isn't as smooth as it may look, in my opinion the most simple such utility is the FileHippo.com's Program Update Checker, which does the same, is portable and you can download and run it any time on any pc, its size is on 155kb and it does a very decent job of finding old software and giving links to downloads on one single webpage.

   FileHippo.com Program Update Checker:

   http://www.filehippo.com/updatechecker/

   Download the stand-alone version without the installer, sun it, update your system and then forget about it.....

   Reply
8. October 29, 2009 9:49 PM
   kimsland, Ex-TechSpotter, said:

   FileHippo.com Program Update Checker:

   http://www.filehippo.com/updatechecker/

   Download the stand-alone version without the installer, sun it, update your system and then forget about it.....

   Thanks zaidpirwani

   That program actually worked better (faster) than "Secunia PSI" and it found more things to update

   Obviously its better

   Reply
9. October 29, 2009 10:00 PM
   ceejay949 said:

   A very nice and helpful software indeed.

   Reply
10. October 29, 2009 10:14 PM
    GACrabill said:

    zaidpirwani said: FileHippo.com Program Update Checker:

    http://www.filehippo.com/updatechecker/

    Download the stand-alone version without the installer, run it, update your system and then forget about it.....

    Thanks zaidoirwani.

    Another free tool for the toolbox is always a good thing if its a manual tool and not a constantly-running tool.

    Reply
11. October 29, 2009 10:33 PM
    viperpfl said:

    I downloaded the program on my Vista 64bit laptop. The program was fast and takes up very little system resources when scanning. If you x out of the program, the program will still be running in the system tray.

    How well it works is another question. I had my laptop scanned and it didn't find any threats.

    Reply
12. October 29, 2009 10:59 PM
    

    mattfrompa said:

    I love trying out these neat freeware programs. Even though I lack knowledge of Linux, I still love the idea of open source and freeware, and am excited to give this a try.

    Reply
13. October 29, 2009 11:57 PM
    BlindObject said:

    The more free tools, the better. Have you guys featured UltraMon yet? Great tool if you have dual screens.

    Reply
14. October 30, 2009 12:29 AM
    

    Whiffen said:

    Sweet, I'm going to get this right away. I've been looking for something just like this for awhile now.

    Reply
15. October 30, 2009 1:11 AM
    

    r3claimer said:

    I like these weekly downloads, but I find that I end up using them about once, think "this is awesome", then forget they exist. lol

    Reply
16. October 30, 2009 1:18 AM
    lynxon said:

    You know, whenever it comes to all these neat little freeware apps, I'll always just download it and find it awesome for like a week. After that it's normally just another app that I realize I never use so I remove it, but sometimes I end up keeping them; stuff like VistaSwitcher and RM-Clock, those things are pretty awesome.

    Reply
17. October 30, 2009 1:27 AM
    

    WinXPert said:

    I'll give it a try and see if it really worth installing.

    Ok been there done that. Nice apps. This is what I got

    Your Secunia System Score of 100% is 5% HIGHER than the average user from -, Philippines.

    Reply
18. October 30, 2009 3:11 AM
    Staff
    

    Per Hansson, TS Server Guru, said:

    I used to use an online service like this very long ago to scan manually

    It is in my opinion very nice when you have many apps installed and want to find updates to them, granted I usually keep my system updated manually tho, I just prefer it that way

    Oh,and another vote for UltraMon, I actually covered it here in TS long ago in our news but it deserves another mention

    http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic7610.html

    Reply
19. October 30, 2009 4:59 AM
    

    limpangel said:

    mattfrompa said:

    I love trying out these neat freeware programs. Even though I lack knowledge of Linux, I still love the idea of open source and freeware, and am excited to give this a try.

    Then first thing you should learn is that freeware is not necessarily open source, and open source is not necessarily free software (read GPL).

    Little apps like this should make Microsoft consider stealing some ideas from the Ubuntu camp. The software updater more precisely. I like how Ubuntu updates almost 90% of all your installed software and this feature is definetly needed in Windows.

    Windows made some progress with the third party drivers update feature in Windows Update for Vista/7, but Adobe, Apple and other Windows software are often more dangerous if not kept up to date. Of course some of the apps come with their own automatic update manager, but most not so knowledgeable people ignore those. And other updaters, like the silent Google Chrome Updater, are just scary.

    One solution would be to implement a Ubuntu like third-party software system. When you install an app you get the option to add its repository address to your Windows Software Updater. Then the software updater works like the normal Windows Update and checks the repos of theese apps for updates at a chosen time interval.

    Reply
20. October 30, 2009 5:53 AM
    SoulSeeker said:

    do they deem everything that isnt up to date "insecure"?

    Thats a bit... paranoid. Not to mention that some updates introduce security holes that weren't there before. And I cant imagine they have the resources to check up on every new update of the tons of programs in their database.

    Oh well, might be interesting for some.. I dont think its a necessity for me

    Reply
21. October 30, 2009 8:22 AM
    swilllx2p said:

    I'm going to have to give this app a shot when I get home from work. Although I'll be turning the settings off for it to start up automatically. I hate that every app you download now a days automatically starts with your pc, giving some people that don't know any better an insane amount of start up items that do nothing but hog memory and generally are only needed when you would want to go manually use them. For example does anyone seriously notice any difference using adobe readers speed launcher start up exe? I sure don't.

    Reply
22. October 30, 2009 12:51 PM
    ET3D, TechSpot Paladin, said:

    I don't think I'll use it myself, but as the family's "IT person" it may be a good program to run on other people's machines to see if there's any glaring problem.

    Reply
23. October 30, 2009 1:10 PM
    

    pioneerx01 said:

    I wonder how "user friendly" this is. This should be deigned for people who do not know much about PC's. Question is if they are going to run it, if they are too lazy to do the updates.

    Reply
24. October 30, 2009 2:01 PM
    

    JMMD, TechSpot Chancellor, said:

    I've been telling people about this software for a long time. It's great at helping users determine what is out of date on their machine. So many people still run old versions of things like Java, Acrobat, Flash, etc.

    Hope this gets the word out to more people.

    Reply
25. October 31, 2009 9:04 AM
    aestarvirus said:

    i know about this freeware, one of my friends living in the same dormitory with me is using this. at first i thought, is it an antivirus or something 'coz we have no such thing like this when i was still in philippines.

    then later did i know that it's not a antivirus itself but an "extra" safeguard on one's computer against illegal intruders in the web. i was even amazed when i learned that it detects updates of different softwares!... such a great help actually... it makes the antivirus shield more powerful than before..

    that's why i really recommend it to those computer-workaholic like me (though now in china i don't have my pc yet)... it can automatically scan your computer's system and see if there's a sudden break-ups on the shields you previously provided... such a big help right? especially if you handle large amounts of confidential documents of a company, this freeware will be a big assurance for protectivity and a relief as well...

    Reply

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