A program is nothing but an executable file with 100s or 1000s of lines of code. Depending on its structure, the EXE file may call functions from other files that are a part of the software. Developers release software updates on a regular basis to make them user-friendly and safe. Some applications download updates and install them automatically without disturbing the user. For example, Firefox, Chrome, and my favorite Brave browser update themselves automatically to the newer version.
Most of the premium and free software don’t support automatic updates. Hence, you must depend on a third-party program to keep software up to date on Windows PC.
If you’ve installed plenty of applications on your computer and you don’t want to update them manually, download any one of the below best software updaters for Windows.
FileHippo App updater
The program scans your PC to find antiquated software. It first downloads program definitions from the FH database, and then it compiles the list of programs installed on Windows. FHUM compares the list (app version) with the downloaded definitions. In this way, Hippo identifies software that requires your attention.
FHUM found the below seven out-of-date programs on my Windows 10 laptop:
The program allows users to specify folders where they have installed programs. You can enter as many paths as you want. The program supports scheduled scan operations. You can configure it to start when Windows OS boots.
FH update manager for Windows lets you designate a folder where it will save all downloaded files. It can run in the background. It lets you change the current color theme.
Secunia PSI (Personal Software Inspection)
Yet another widely used free software update, PSI offers every important feature that a premium tool provides. When it is active, the program records activities of the users so that whenever an update fails, they can get details of the stable version of the failed program and download it. The history section of Secunia shows the following details:
- Date or activity.
- Program name.
- The version of the application you used.
- Latest variant.
- Update status.
Like the update manager from FH, Secunia PSI scans all applications on your system. Then, it categorizes apps into two groups:
- Programs that need updating.
- Up-to-date software.
You can either configure PSI to download and install updates automatically or download the newest version of software manually from the interface of Secunia. On my PC, PSI found the following outdated programs:
- Node.JS, VirtualBox, PHP, JRE.
- Putty, 7-Zip.
It didn’t identify the obsolete applications File Hippo had found.
Final verdict
In my perspective, both apps did an excellent job of recognizing dated programs. Hence, it is not easy to label FHUM and SPSI as the best software updater. You can see that 1st program on our list didn’t find Node.JS, PHP on PC outdated. Similarly, I was not using the latest editions of WinSCP and GIMP. Secunia failed to detect these two programs.
For better results, you must both the tools at the same time. Both programs can work in manual mode without operating in the background. Even if you configure them to run on Windows start-up, you won’t experience system slowdown because the software updater tools I’ve shared above utilize a small amount of CPU duty cycles and RAM.
