Keeping the software current Windows

Modern computers contains al lot of software. A fully updated fresh windows installation contains well over 50.000 files - and before it being “usable” with the most common applications, plugins, addons and extensions for the software you use on a daily basis, you’ve probably added so much more, that you’ve completely lost count of what’s been installed.

It’s a pretty bad situation in terms of security and software maintenance/updating.

WindowsUpdate has come part of the way. It’s easy and simple for even common users to use and stay fairly current with the core windows system, but it only covers a small piece of the puzzle. While most windows machines I’ve encountered seem to have Office installed, WindowsUpdate doesn’t cover it - OfficeUpdate does, but how many people know of that? - and run it on a regular basis?

Some software (a lot it seems) have build-in phone-home functions, which allow them to check for updates on a regular basis - if it’s available and you have enabled the checks, another piece is solved.

Wouldn’t a one-stop solution seem much nicer?

Well it seems Secunia has come very close to providing just that with the Secuina PSI. The PSI - Personal Software Inspector - is a little scanner, which scans your hard drive for installed software (windows, office, drivers, applications, utilities) and checks it against a database with software versions and security issues in the various versions. If it finds issues, it describes the issue and provide links to where updates for the software can be found.

I’ve played a with it while migrating one of the Windows Machines at home to new hardware, and so far it’s been quite impressive. Give it a try - it’s available for personal use  from Secunias website.