Keeping your operating system up to date is vital to having a malware-free computer. But even if you've got Windows fully patched, any one of your installed applications can be a potential point of entry for attackers should you forget or are just too lazy to grab the latest version. Enter Secunia PSI, a freeware security tool that makes it easy to find and fix old programs on your PC, even those that lack automatic update features.

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

Interesting idea. Wonder how well supported it is?

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.

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 :)

This software has been around for a while now..

It's paranoid BTW

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.

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..... :)

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

A very nice and helpful software indeed.

Thanks zaidoirwani.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.