PC Tonic

More and more software are being exploited for their vulnerabilities everyday, and therefore it’s near imperative that we keep all our software tools updated with the latest patches and fixes from the publishers. Windows doesn’t provide any centralized feature to keep your third party software updated, but there are quite a few apps (mentioned here and here) that can do the job.

Update Notifier is yet another update checking tool that does it’s job nicely. Sporting a clean interface, Update Notifier makes full use of the 60,000-something database of CleanSofts.org to recognize almost all your installed software and monitors them for updates.

As you can see in the screenshot above, the software which are not up-to-date have a green “download” link next to them. Click on the link and you’ll be taken to it’s respective CleanSofts page to download the latest version of the software.

Update Notifier can be easily configured to display only the type of updates you want – major / minor updates, updates for commercial / free software etc.

Moreover, it can check updates for standalone or portable software as well, given you specify the folder where that application is present. 

I’ve using FileHippo ’s Update Checker for a long time, but Update Notifier looks clearly better on a lot of fronts, like larger software support and more configuration options. One improvement I would like to see in future versions would be the ability to directly start program updates in it’s interface (without having to go to the website).

All in all, Update Notifier is one solid update checking tool that can certainly make your PC a lot safer (provided you utilize it properly, of course!).